Twilight
by ANG3L423
Summary: My version of twilight with the main characters of Alice and Bella  rating will probably change
1. Chapter 1

It was my third day at Forks High school. I tried not to think too much of Arizona, it made me home sick, thinking about the weather and the nice warm sun. Warmth, something definitely lacking in Forks. I could never understand why my dad moved here, there were so many other hot places in America, he had the whole country to choose from, and he chose the darkest corner of the USA itself. I hadn't been here long, but Forks was probably the most boring place I'd ever been; there's nothing to do here apart from walk around forests. Not my idea of fun. The nearest shopping mall, my idea of fun, was a couple of hours away, not something you can just drive to for the afternoon with a couple of friends. Shopping, that reminded me that I needed to buy some new sweaters. I looked around the large white, clean canteen; it was quieter than what it had been on the first day, more empty chairs and tables. From what I could see it seemed like everyone already had their friend groups made years ago, but since I'm the new girl everyone wanted to know me, hence why I was sitting with almost half the school. I looked around the table at all the other students, smiling awkwardly at them, unsure what to do or say. I'm normally so clumsy I didn't want to do anything stupid. About twenty minutes later they had all gone except for two girls, Angela and Jessica. They seemed nice enough but wanted to both be best pals with the new girl. Conversation was light; Jessica could talk for America so I let her get on with it, but it was nothing that important, just bits here and there. Looking over at the door, I saw some more students, just coming in by the looks of it.

"Who are they?" I asked Angela and Jessica. They looked different from every other student here, they looked... strangely different. I was so intrigued because of how different they looked.

Jessica and Angela both turned around in synch. Jessica turned back to look at me.

"They're the Cullen's." She said, sounding excited.

"They were adopted by Dr. And Mrs. Cullen and moved down here from Alaska a couple of years ago." Angela added in, turning round also.

"Alaska, wow." No wonder they're so pale I thought to myself.

The first one to walk through was a guy, quite tall and very muscular. His dark hair was almost completely shaved, and matched the colour of his thick eyebrows. A girl walked in behind him. She looked like a model, flowing blonde hair and a look to die for. They were both wearing white clothing, maybe it was the theme for the day.

"That's Emmett and Rosalie," Jessica said, "They're a couple I think. I'm sure that's like, incest or something.

"Jess, they're not _actually_ related." Angela pointed out.

"Yeah but they all live together it's weird. That girl coming through now is Maria, and the guy behind her is Jasper." She told me who each one was pointing out. "You'll remember Jasper; he's the one who always looks like he's in pain." She added, casting a quick glance at Angela.

I looked over my shoulder at Jasper and Maria. Jasper had dark blonde hair, a similar colour to the previous girl, they looked alike. Maybe those two were related. Maria, like the first guy had very dark hair, long. She looked a lot more approachable then the other girl; she walked with a smile on her face whereas the other girl had more of a grimace. They too were wearing white clothing. They had taken their places at the opposite side of the canteen, away from everyone else. As I turned back around, I saw another girl walk through the door. She must be with the Cullen's because she looks like them as well, but she was gorgeous. I stopped immediately as I saw her.

"Who's that?" I stuttered out.

Jessica turned around, "That's Alice. She's, _really_ weird." She said, rolling her eyes and casting yet another quick glance at Angela.

I hardly heard what Jessica had said, I couldn't take my eyes off her. She too walked with a smile on her face, but it didn't seem as real as the other girls. She took a place next to the muscular one and started talking to them. I looked back, not wanting to stare, but as I tried to sneak a look, she looked straight at me. Our eyes met for a brief second and I turned away hurriedly.

"Bella?"

"Yeah." I must have looked startled; I could feel myself breathing heavily. Was I just holding my breath?

"Well?" Angela asked.

"Well...? What?"

"You weren't listening were you?" She smiled to make it sound friendlier than what I should have heard it as. "We asked you if you wanted another tour of the school. We still have," She checked her watch, "Ten minutes until our next lesson; we'll walk you there too if you like?"

Angela and Jessica both looked at me, wide eyes and smiling madly. I smiled back and nodded. I got up off the chair and as I went to tuck it under the table I looked round at the Cullen's, at Alice. She was watching me out of the corner of her eye. That much I could tell. I looked back at Angela and Jessica and followed them out of the canteen and into the busy halls of the school.

They were packed. No other way to describe them. I pushed and shoved my way past the other students, making sure I didn't lose sight of Angela and Jessica. We made it out into the car park where they gave me a rough idea of where to go to get to each lesson. The car park was busy, but a lot quieter than inside the school. Looking over Angela's shoulder, I saw my great orange truck sticking out like a sore thumb. It made me blush a little just thinking about it. I did love my truck, but a school car park wasn't the place for it.

I listened intently on what Angela and Jessica had to say, and after they had finished they walked me to my class as promised. Science. I sighed of the thought of having to sit through a whole hour of science with a lab partner I didn't even know. I bid my farewells as I got to the door, then opened it and walked through, shutting it behind me. A fan blew my hair everywhere as I walked past it, and as I looked up into the classroom, by the window I saw Alice. Our eyes met again. Her eyes suddenly widened and she looked as if she'd seen a ghost.

"Miss Swan I believe?" I turned my head to the teacher and nodded. He smiled in reply and showed me my seat, the one next to Alice. I sat down and looked over to her. She quickly turned away but I could vaguely make out her reflection in the window; shock and horror. What was wrong with her? Or what was wrong with me?


	2. Chapter 2

I concentrated on my class, not wanting to seem like a slacker on my first week. The work was relatively easy; it was something I had already covered in Arizona. I kept glancing in Alice's direction and whenever I did, she was staring at me. Perfectly still, her black eyes boring into me, she didn't move an inch. It made me feel slightly uncomfortable. Why was she staring so intently? Again I tried to concentrate on the work. I looked over at her and she hadn't done a single thing this lesson, not written one word, her book lay there empty. I looked back at mine and saw at least 2 pages of work. Since the work was already done I looked around the class and tried to get familiar with all the new faces. One I recognised was Mike's. He had been one of the guys that sat with me at lunch. His short blonde hair looked lovely with his bright blue eyes, and with his baby face made him look so cute. Baby cute not hot cute. I had worked out a long time ago guys weren't my thing, but I don't think that will bother him. He gave me a small wave as I met him eye to eye and I returned the wave. It was a comfort knowing someone here liked me. I was convinced that Angela and Jessica would get fed up of me soon enough. The teacher started to explain the homework, which I had done in the lesson, but I listened to him anyway. He was quite tall, short dark curly hair with dark eyes and glasses. He dressed quite old fashioned, but then again he did look mid-40 so I suppose he's hitting that age anyway. His accent was a strange mix, sounded slightly European. I wrote the homework down even though I had done it; maybe I could do some more at home. It would give me something to do as Charlie was still a bit awkward to be around. I looked at Alice out of the corner of my eye and saw she had packed her stuff away. She got up and like a bolt of lightning headed for the door. Just as she touched the handle the bell went, and everyone followed suit. Maybe Jessica was right, maybe she is weird. I still couldn't help thinking it was something to do with me though, it was a gut feeling.

I packed my books away slowly, not in any real rush to get to my next lesson, when Mike bounded over.

"Hey Bella!" He said excitedly, like an excited child at a chocolate shop. "You have maths next right?"

I nodded in agreement.

"So do I, want me to walk you there? Well, not walk you there as such, show you the way?" He continued to mumble and then stopped and smiled.

"Yeah that'd be great thanks." I could do with the company.

One hour later and my first Maths lesson had been over with. I'd sat behind Mike and next to Angela. Angela was very smart and knew exactly what she was doing. Mike on the other hand turned around for hints now and again; no wonder he sits in front of her. As I made my way to my truck I remembered I needed another lesson sheet, a schedule of lessons. I had two already but knowing me, I would need at least another 3 to get through the week. I made it through the door and saw Alice standing at the reception.

"You have no other lessons? None what-so-ever?" She seemed tense, if not angry.

The receptionist shook her head. "None I'm sorry."

Alice walked away. "I guess I'll have to stay in Biology." She muttered as she walked past me. My eyes followed her as she walked out the door and nearly pulled it off its hinges. I looked back at the receptionist and just decided to go back home. My lesson schedule could wait.

[LATER]

"Bella! Bella!" I heard a scream, a shrill voice in my head. Tree's rustled past me and I felt cold wind wrapping around my bare legs. "Bella!" Almost a whisper now, the voice disappearing with the wind. I started to run, to try and catch up but no matter how fast I ran the voice kept on getting weaker in the wind. I must have been in a forest, as more and more tree's approached me. I started to run with lightening speed, flying past the trees. I could see everything so clearly, and as I dived around a tree I came to an immediate halt. Alice. She stared at me, black eyes just like before. She smirked at me and then laughed. "Alice" I mouthed but nothing came out. She approached me, almost stalking me. Her eyes turned to a deep crimson colour, then fangs protruded out of her mouth, and then she pounced.

I awoke with a start, sitting up straight. I combed my hand through my hair then looked up. Alice. No, it couldn't have been. I scrambled for the light but as I turned it on she had gone. I shook my head and smiled. Alice. What are you doing to me?


	3. Chapter 3

I sat in my truck in the school parking lot. First lesson of the day, Biology. Great I thought what a start! I slumped out of my truck and trudged all the way to my lesson. What should I say? Should I ignore her, or speak to her? Thoughts were racing through my mind, thoughts of Alice. My dream from last night was still fresh in my mind. As I approached the classroom I took a deep breath and stepped in. There, sat by the window, was Mike. A puzzled look crossed my face as I walked across the classroom.

"What are you doing sitting there?" I asked him almost angrily.

"Well your 'lab partner' is off sick so I thought I would accompany you." He said smiling. I didn't like the way he called Alice my 'lab partner'. Why did he have to be so sarcastic about her?

I nodded, giving him permission to sit there for the remainder of the time she was off. Damn it Alice where are you?

Three days had passed and I had not heard or seen Alice Cullen. I was tempted to ask Jessica and Angela what they thought, but decided against it. She had to turn up soon, the rest of her family were still here. I was still sleepy from the sleepless night and wandered into Biology. I walked over to my table and sat down, getting my things out.

"Hi." That same shrill voice as in my dreams. I turned to face the window and sat there was Alice, a brief smiling playing on her lips, her beautiful face staring at me. I was breathless.

"I'm sorry I didn't have a chance to introduce myself last time we met, I'm Alice, Alice Cullen, you're Bella." She stared at me in the same way, but she didn't look as deranged as she had the other day. She knew my name, did she ask her family?

I nodded. After a few minutes of silence, I said to her "You were gone, for a whole week."

She looked back at the desk, "Yeah, family issues." She said and looked back at me. Her eyes were a golden colour today, so beautiful. I'd never seen anyone's eyes change colour that much in one week. I mentioned her eyes and yet again she looked away, she didn't seem to have a good explanation for that one.

We continued to talk throughout the lesson, mainly about me and why I had moved to Forks. I didn't want to talk about me, but she was intent on knowing every scrap of information about me, or that's at least how it came across. I told her everything and she sat and listened, taking in everything I had to tell her. The bell went for the next lesson. I had a free and incidentally, so did Alice.

"Do you fancy going for a walk?" she asked me, did she even need to ask? It was obvious what my answer was going to be, and by the way she asked it seemed as if she already knew what my answer was going to be before _I_ did. Luckily all my new 'friends' had lessons, so I was free to go walking with Alice without their knowledge.

We made it to the woods by the edge of the school and we sat down, resting on trees, away from the eyes of everyone. I sat there, looking at her from the corner of my eye; I had no idea what to say to her. As if she could read my thoughts, she began telling me about what happened the other day.

"I got a call from my father, Carlisle, that one of my aunties had been taken I'll. I'm her only real family left and she wanted me there. She was too ill to look after me, hence why I was adopted by Carlisle and Esme. It's a shame because I hadn't spent half as much time with her as I would have liked."

I looked at her sympathetically, but seeing my facial expression changed the subject quickly. She told me all about her family, what her parents did and about her adopted siblings.

"Rose is one you want to stay away from," She laughed, "Her moods even catch Emmett off guard at times!"

I smiled. "Why are they together? Is it, you know." Not wanting to sound rude I ended my sentence there.

"No it's perfectly within the law. We're not blood related so it's fine, and since we all met our partners at different times we we're dating before we became family. Well I say we colloquially." She told me, smiling at me. She was the only one single. I asked her why but her only answer was because the right person hadn't fallen for her yet, inclining she had already met that person and was in love with them. When I asked her who she gave me that smile she did in class and said it was time we got to our next lesson. Maybe I was in luck after all! As she walked past me I could smell her scent, was it a perfume or her smell, Alice smell. Whatever it was it was gorgeous. I think I'm falling for her.

I sat in maths, thinking purely about Alice and how different she had acted with me today. She had the same stare in Biology, but seemed to let go of it when we were in the woods. I couldn't work out why, maybe she needed air or something, maybe she was claustrophobic and that's why she sat next to the window. Whatever the reason it had been resolved and she seemed to like me. I was planning on asking her what happened again in a few weeks, I didn't believe the story about her auntie, although she did make it sound very convincing. It just seemed like there was more to it, almost like she was secretly hinting to me. I was starting to lag behind on my work, so I pushed Alice out of my mind for a few minutes whilst I caught up on my work.


	4. Chapter 4

TUESDAY.

The next morning my stomach jumped a little as I remembered that I had biology first thing. Alice. I almost skipped across the parking lot and nearly reached a run as I arrived in the classroom. A smile spread across my lips as I saw her sitting by the window in all her beauty. I walked over to my seat and sat down, carefully glancing over at Alice. She didn't seem at all interested that I had just arrived and almost ignored me.

"Hey." I said questioningly.

Alice turned to me and smiled, but looked back at the window. Thoughts of the first time I met her played through my head. Not this again. We had a project to do in lesson, and worked together. I paid close attention to her and took note of her eye colour; black. Her eyes had changed colour again, maybe it was something to do with her moods. I'd never heard of anything like that before but it could be a medical condition or something. She didn't change in the whole hour, and walked out without even a goodbye. My mood had completely changed, now she had put me in a bad mood too. Why does she keep giving me mixed signals?

WEDNESDAY.

The next day I looked for her in school but she wasn't there. Most of her family were at the table, but the blonde girl and her boyfriend weren't, Rosalie and Emmett I think they were called. I didn't bother asking Jessica or Angela where they were; I didn't want them knowing I had much interest in the Cullen's. I slumped around for the rest of the day, which didn't go unnoticed by a certain blonde haired, blue eyed boy. He seemed glad that Alice wasn't in. I think he's started to notice something; he takes note of how happy I am when she's with me, he just doesn't seem clever enough to work out it's a love thing.

"So."

I looked at Mike. "What?" I asked moodily.

"Alice. You're friends with her right?" He seemed to be choosing his words very carefully.

"You can say that." I looked away from him, concentrating on the rest of the canteen.

"I was just asking." He said, and then walked off. I watched him go; I had clearly been too harsh with him. I sighed and stood up; I have to get out of here.

THURSDAY.

Two days since I had seen Alice. Yes, I think I am in love with her. I can't stop thinking about her. I had another dream about her last night; it had a very similar theme to the last one. I don't know why, but she always seemed to be some sort of predator, hunting me in my dreams. It scared me because I didn't want to see Alice in this way. I carried on thinking about Alice as I grabbed my lunch from the canteen. Standing with my tray by the lunches set out I reached for a tuna and mayonnaise sandwich, and knocked an apple off the side in the process. I looked over and out of nowhere stood Alice with the apple in her palms. She stood smiling at me, then handed me the apple. I aggressively took the apple from her and put it on my tray.

"Your moods are starting to give me whiplash." I said to Alice, trying to be as harsh as I could with her.

"Yeah I'm sorry, I just have a lot on my mind." She smiled at me. I swore she winked at me too. "I was wondering if you had another free today." She paused. "I liked our chat we had the other day."

I looked at her, I didn't have a free. Mike had said before something about going to a beach for the day, so I asked Alice if she wanted to go. She asked me where it was; I had no idea but she guessed it was one she didn't want to go to. I was disappointed that she didn't go; it would have given me a chance to show everyone that she wasn't weird, just a normal girl, probably more shy than everyone else. However, she offered to take me to dinner the night after, so I agreed and went back to my table with my lunch, a grand smile over my face. Mike noticed and gave Alice a dirty look as she almost danced past the table, smiling at me. I blushed, I could feel it. Mike seemed unimpressed and left. Jessica followed him and Angela asked me if she knew what was up. I shrugged and took a bite out of my tuna and mayonnaise sandwich.


	5. Chapter 5

I sat in Mike's dad's van with Angela and Jessica, watching Mike and his friend's suit up to go surfing.

"Sure none of you are coming girls?" He asked mockingly.

We all shook our heads in synchronization; no way were we going out in this. We all had over three layers on and were still shivering so there was no way they'd get us in wetsuits. We watched them shiver and huddled together to keep warm.

"How come you didn't bring anyone with you Bella?" Jessica asked.

"She did," Angela pushed in, "She invited Alice but she said no."

I smiled awkwardly at the ground, not wanting to look at anyone. Was I embarrassed about being friends with Alice? I heard Mike laugh. Damn him I thought.

"Did you really think she would come?" Mike asked, still laughing.

"Who would come?" It was Jake. A smile grew across my face as I flung myself around him. He still had dark long hair and a beautiful face, just like it was the weeks ago I moved here. I could still remember him from my childhood and how much time we used to spend together. We were the best of friends, even when I used to go back to live with mom in Florida I would send him letters.

"Jake! What are you doing here?" I was so happy to see him; it had been weeks!

"I kinda live here." He answered, smiling. "Heard from Mike's dad you were all coming here today, you don't mind me and the guys joining in do you?" He pointed to his two friends behind him who also had long dark hair. They gestured their heads as if to introduce themselves.

"Why not, the more the better!" Mike said. "You wanna come surfing with us or you gonna be wusses like the girls are?" He flashed a smile at us and as I looked at my two girlfriends I swear I saw Jessica blush.

"I'm good." Jake said, "Fancy going for a walk Bella? Look like you need warming up. Plus we need a good catch up!"

I smiled and nodded my head. His other two friends decided to go surfing with the guys, leaving the two girls to have some time alone. We walked along the beach, both of us had our hoods up and coats zipped up tight.

"So who was supposed to come here?" Jake asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well when I came I'm sure Mike said something about `She wouldn't come here`?"

"Oh, that. Yeah I invited Alice here."

"Alice?"

"Cullen. She goes to my school, probably haven't heard of her."

"Oh I've heard of the Cullen's alright." He said in a tone that said ask me more.

"Okay."

Jake looked at me with a smile on his face. "You're not really good friends with her are you?"

"I might be!" I teased.

"Well, there's just a lot of rumours about them."

"What kind of rumours?" I asked, starting to get a bit suspicious.

"A long time ago, there were stories of a Cullen clan living here. `The Cold Ones`."

"Cold ones?"

"Yeah. Apparently my family, are the descendants of wolves!" He laughed, and I joined him.

"Wolves? What does that have to do with `The Cold Ones`?"

"A lot. They found the Cullen clan hunting on their land, they ordered them away but they claimed to live here. Their eyes were dead and they had skin like stone, white and cold. They were like nothing my family had ever seen before, they had seen similar but they had seemed wilder than what the Cullen's were. They threatened to kill them but the Cullen's stood their ground and insisted that they lived here and continued to live here. They convinced them that they were no danger to them and would never kill any humans, and my family let them stay, but created a border. The Cullen's were not to come past this border otherwise they would be killed. Whether the Cullen's currently in Forks are the same ones as the ones from a hundred years ago, nobody knows. Our family from that time are not with us now so there is no way to tell, but if they are, then..." Jake trailed off.

So much information was being stuffed through my brain, it was almost overloaded. Cullen clan, hunting. "Then what?" I asked Jake, almost begging him to tell me the rest.

"Then I don't know what." He looked at me and stopped dead in his tracks.

I too stopped. I hadn't realised that we had walked so far, we must have been a good mile away from Mike and the others, I felt like I was in another world.

"What did these Cullen's `hunt` exactly?"

"Animals. Not sure what they did with them though. That much we never found out. From what we've all pieced together they drained the blood from the animal, drank its blood. The Cullen's left after their little `meeting` with my ancestors and they took a look at the animal, and saw no meat was taken and it was still in its full shape."

Drank blood. "When did you say all this was Jake?"

He shrugged, "Well over one hundred years ago I guess."

"And they drank blood?"

He nodded.

Vampires. They must have been vampires. My eyes widened and I jumped a mile when I heard a blood-curdling scream. Me and Jake jolted round and saw a girl running away from a guy holding a piece of seaweed. I breathed out heavily. Holding my breath again. I really needed to stop this. Me and Jake looked at each other. "So they were vampires your ancestors came across?"

Jake nodded. "I worked that much out, but I haven't seen anything of the Cullen's so I couldn't say whether they were the same ones or not."

"I thought no one knew what they looked like?"

"They don't, but the stone cold touch and white skin doesn't come in human form very often does it?" He raised his eyebrows.

"No." I answered, more to myself than Jake. Vampires. The Cullen's couldn't be vampires. Not Alice. She couldn't kill anything or anyone. I shook my head in disbelief. No, they're not the same ones, that is physically impossible. "They can't be the same ones Jake, over one hundred years ago?"

"Vampires might live forever Bella."

I looked sourly down at the ground and closed my eyes. Not my Alice. I opened them again and walked with Jake back to the rest of the guys.


	6. Chapter 6

I looked at my computer screen. Google homepage. My fingers sat on my keyboard, unmoving. Maybe I didn't want to find out more about these `Cold Ones`, or had I already figured it out? I looked at the time; five minutes until Alice arrived. She had promised me dinner tonight, so I waited. Turning my laptop off I walked over to the window to see Alice stood by her Canary yellow Porsche, beaming up at me. I couldn't help but smile, and bounded down the stairs, past Charlie giving him a passive `See you later` and calmly walked over to Alice, still standing next to her car. It was icy so I had to be extra careful, especially with me being so clumsy. I watched where I was walking, but apparently wasn't enough as I went crashing into the ground, until Alice caught me. I looked up at her, her golden eyes burning into mine. I blushed and thanked her.

"You have very quick reactions." I told her, which she shrugged off and got into her car.

It didn't take us long to get to the restaurant, Alice drove like a mad woman, breaking every speed limit she possibly could.

"Do you ever get caught speeding?" I asked her, clinging onto my seat.

She laughed and shook her head, "I've never been caught in all my life. None of us have."

"So you all drive this insanely?"

She laughed again, "Yeah. It's in the family."

Suddenly the thought of the cold ones jumped into my mind. The reference to her life had probably reminded me. "And how long have you been driving?" I asked her, trying to sound as calm as I could.

"Since I was seventeen. Carlisle gave me lessons on private land before I was old enough to drive and passed my test as soon as I was old enough."

Sounds like a basic answer I thought. I tried to think of ways to catch her out but I couldn't think of any. I looked over at Alice and she suddenly had a serious look on her face, as if something terrible had just happened. "Are you okay?" I was genuinely worried about her.

She looked over at me with blank eyes and stopped the car. Looking out of the front window I saw that we had arrived at the restaurant. I looked back at Alice, and went to touch her hand, but she moved away. We sat staring at each other. Maybe she wasn't interested in me in that way, maybe it was a friendly thing she was after. She turned her head and got out of the car, and I followed her. We walked into the restaurant together, and she had put a smile back on her face. She spoke to the man at the front and somehow got us the best table in the restaurant. It was secluded away from the prying eyes and ears of everybody else in the place. I looked up at the tall ceiling, it was beautiful, but judging by the decor and expensive looking wallpaper, I could tell this meal wasn't going to come cheap. We sat down and received two menus and a wine list. Alice thanked the man and was told that the waitress would see to us shortly. I smiled at Alice. "This is a really nice place Alice, are you sure we should have come somewhere this posh?"

Alice smiled at me, "I'm absolutely sure, why wouldn't I bring you to the nicest place in Forks?" she said with the most seductive smile she's ever given me. I bit my bottom lip and looked down at the menu. God if I could get away with Alice now I would.

"Good evening, have you decided on anything?"

I looked up to see our waitress, long golden hair with a beautiful smile, but was looking at Alice. Alice looked down.

"Nothing for me thank you." Alice looked up at me.

"You sure? Not even a drink?" The waitress asked, still eyes content on Alice.

"No. I'm fine thank you."

"And anything for you?" She looked at me with an unimpressed look on her face.

"I'll have a glass of water and lasagne please." I ordered with a smile. She wrote them down on her notepad and grabbed the menus and wine list off our table and tucked them into her uniform.

"Let me know if you want anything." She said to Alice, giving her a sexy smile which Alice didn't see because she was looking at me.

The waitress walked off and a couple of minutes returned with my water. I thanked her and started drinking it.

"So how come you're not having anything?" I asked Alice, giving her my most confused look I could muster.

"I've already eaten. Carlisle has us on a specific," She paused and smiled, "Diet."

I nodded. "Understandable. He's a doctor isn't he?"

Alice nodded.

We sat in almost silence until my meal came, at which Alice constantly asked me if it was okay. I answered yes every time, but she wanted to make sure I was telling the truth. To really tell the truth, it was the nicest lasagne I had ever had, and finished it in record time. Alice looked surprised at how quickly I finished my meal, but it didn't bother me too much. The waitress came back and collected my empty plate, and just as she yet again returned, probably with the bill, Alice got money out of her bag and handed it to her. The waitress looked shocked and said `Thank you`, walking away.

"I really should have paid Alice, you didn't even eat anything!"

"Then there would have been no point in me taking you out would there?"

I shrugged. "Did you give her a big tip or something?" I asked Alice.

"Something like that." She said, standing up.

She walked around the table and pulled my chair out for me.

"What a lovely gentleman." I joked and Alice chuckled.

We walked out of the restaurant and back into her car.

"Where now?" Alice asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Where ever you like."

She nodded and started the engine. It roared to life and within seconds we had hit the road and were halfway back to my house. I again clung to my seat for the whole journey. We arrived at my house, and Alice opened the car door for me.

"Is it okay if I come in?" Alice asked carefully.

"Yeah sure, I don't think Charlie will mind." I said walking up the path, Alice holding me up this time.

"Charlie's not..." Alice trailed off.

"What?" I wanted her to finish.

She looked around, "Charlie's not in." She said calmly, "He told you he was going out when you said goodbye to him."

Another confused look crossed my face. "He didn't say a word about going out." I turned around and opened the door with my keys. Alice was right, Charlie was out. He had left a note saying he was at Billy's and wouldn't be coming back until the morning. I looked back at Alice, "How did you know?" I asked her.

"Like I said..." she started.

"No, Alice, he didn't say, because if he did he wouldn't leave a note." I pointed out. One to Bella.

"He probably just wanted to remind you." Alice's voice was still calm, whereas mine was not so calm.

"I'll go if you like?" Alice looked at me with a blank face.

"No!" I said and grabbed her hand. I immediately let go, stone cold. My mouth hung open. "Alice your... Hands?" Stone cold. I looked into her eyes, still golden but showed a slight edge of black.

Alice backed away and ran to her car, starting her engine and driving off faster than humanly possible. She knows, that I know. She must do, it wouldn't take a psychic to work that one out.


	7. Chapter 7

Monday, back to school. I was stood at the back of the school by the benches, the forest overlooking me. I was searching, searching for Alice Cullen. Would she even turn up? Today was the day. The day I told her I knew. The day she would probably kill me for knowing, or would she? I looked straight ahead and there she was, staring at me. I started to walk towards her and then straight past her. I looked back around and hinted at her to follow me. She did. She followed me quite far behind, but never losing sight. I walked up to the forest, and walked though. I continued to walk until I came to a clearing, and found one. I stopped and waited until I heard Alice behind me, but I didn't. She moved silently. I glanced back and saw her staring at the back of my head.

"Your hands are ice cold." I started, not really knowing how this would turn out.

"Your eyes change colour. You never eat... Anything." I turned around to look at her dead in the eye.

"I've heard the stories about the Cullen's. You're the same ones." My voice began to quiver.

"I know what you are." I swallowed hard.

Alice slowly walked closer to me, so close that I could feel her breathing on me. I closed my eyes.

"Say it." She said gently, but almost ordering me.

I opened my eyes and looked at her. She was breathing heavily, her eyes wide and black.

I swallowed hard again, "Vampire." And I closed my eyes at the same time that I said it.

I heard a rustle of leaves and opening my eyes saw she was gone. I looked around, panicking, how did she do that? Again I heard the leaves rushing past me, my breathing got faster and faster until eventually I stopped altogether. She stopped right in front of me.

"Breathe Bella." And she stroked my face, her cold hands sending shivers down my spine.

I obeyed her and started breathing again. Alice looked as if she was going to cry.

"Don't cry." I told her.

She chuckled quietly, "I can't." She said. She breathed in heavily again, "Please Bella, don't be scared of me."

She stood so close now, and I could just make out that she was slightly taller than me. She moved her hands to around my shoulders and hugged me. Her coolness was refreshing against my skin. I pulled her towards me, trying to get her as close as I possibly could, but she pulled away.

"Bella." She whispered, "I need to show you." She looked me in the eye. "I need you to see me for what I really am."

I shook my head. "I like you like this Alice, I don't want to know who you kill or how. Just please stay with me."

"But this isn't the real me. This is a cover up, I need you to see me, the real me."

She pulled me close and told me to get on her back, which I did, and then she started to run. She ran so fast, the trees were just a blur. I buried my head into her short hair and rested on the top of her back. She stopped and peeled me off, leaving me standing in the woods alone once again.

"I've shown you how fast I can run." She shouted from deep within the woods. "You'd never escape if I lost control with you." She ran close to me and uprooted a tree with her bare hands. "I'm so strong that one flick of my finger could kill you." That bit sounded like it was painful for her to say. She walked even closer to me and put her teeth to my neck. I could feel her cool breath running down my neck, giving me goose pimples. She stepped away. "Just then I could have killed you Bella." She shook her head and looked like she was in terrible pain. "I need you to understand!" She ran up to me and pushed me against a tree, our bodies pressing against each other.

"I'm not afraid." Whether I was or not I couldn't quite tell. "Alice, I'm in love with you."

She was standing so close to me; I could feel her gently pushing harder against me, feeling her cool body through her clothes, and my own. She lowered her head slightly, and kissed me. She was so soft, so gentle. I was lost in her world. She put her hands on my face and continued to kiss me ever so softly. I moaned slightly, and gasped for air as she moved away slowly. I wanted more, but sensed Alice couldn't. She looked at me, her eyes black as night, and she grabbed my hand, pulling me gently through the woods. She said nothing, and I didn't dare break the silence; she seemed to know where she was going. Up ahead there was a patch of light, filtered through the trees. She let go of my hand and walked towards it.

"Alice." I breathed, and she stopped.

She backed into the light and stood in the sunlight. I moved closer and saw that she was glowing, glistening. Walking even closer I saw she was sparkling, like a diamond in the sun. My mouth hung open, she was beautiful. A broad smile crossed my face and I walked ever so closer to her. I touched her skin; even in the sunlight it was cold. I looked up at her face which was also glistening. I gently rubbed my hand on her cheek, and reached up to kiss her. She didn't stop me, and grabbed me. She held me close as we kissed again, it was heaven. Her cool lips ran over mine, her cool breath all over me. I put my hand at the back of her neck and tried to pull her closer, but there was no way I could get closer. She suddenly pushed me away and seemed to be gasping for air. She closed her eyes and calmed her breathing.

"Bella." She whispered. She rested one hand on my face and smiled at me, "I wish you knew how hard this is for me."

"Then explain it to me." I was hers now, it felt like I could no longer choose my own actions. I moved in synch with her, where ever she moved I moved.

"Another time." She said to me, "I will come for you tomorrow night, and I will explain everything to you then."

I nodded, not even asking where she would take me, and with that she grabbed me and ran me back to my house. I stood on the doorstep, looking around for her, but she had gone. I smiled to myself and walked through the door. I reached my bedroom and lay down on my bed. I would wait for tomorrow night.


	8. Chapter 8

Tonight was the night. Alice would explain everything to me, or so I hoped. I had school so I got ready in record time and arrived half an hour early. My first two lessons dragged, and the third and fourth didn't go much quicker. It was lunch, and for once in Forks, the sun shone gloriously. I looked around the parking lot where me and my new friend group were stood.

"They're not here." Jessica said out of nowhere.

I looked at Jessica with a confused look.

"The Cullen's. Whenever it's sunny they go camping, some sort of weird family thing they have."

I smiled and looked down, feeling Jessica's eyes on the side of my head. "Camping trips." I repeated. How convenient I thought in my head. I suppose they had to have some sort of alibi for not being in school every sunny day. Did I want to tell Jessica and Angela about Alice? I thought about it, but decided not to, she hadn't seemed herself yesterday, and I had no idea what she would do to me tonight, so I kept my mouth shut. Alice stayed in my mind for the rest of the day, and upon arriving home, I sorted out some nice clothing that I could wear when Alice came. She didn't tell me what time she was going to come so I got dressed straight away.

Looking out of the window I saw that it was still light outside, so I put the TV on and watched some chat show about cheating husbands and domestic violence. Oh the joys of a loving relationship I thought. Hours had passed, and Alice still hadn't shown up. It was around 8pm when Charlie came in and asked me if I was okay. Conversations were getting a little better with him, I think he wasn't as careful with what he was saying now which I liked. I told him I was revising for lessons, but watching TV for a break, and he left me, quite content. One hour later and still absolutely no sign of Alice. I sighed as I looked out of the window; it was dark now so she had no excuse not to show up. A typical human thought about a vampire. It was starting to get strangely warm in my room so I opened the window closest to my bed and lay down, continuing to watch TV. I decided that revision wasn't a bad idea after seeing that there was nothing on TV, so I got out some science books and started revising respiration and other useless things about plants. I found science relatively easy, hence why I chose that to do now. Ten o'clock and no Alice. I got dressed for bed but left the covers off, and turned my main light off, leaving just the bedside lamp on. Half an hour passed watching Jerry Springer, when I heard a knock on my door. I opened it and saw Charlie.

"Hey. I knocked cause I didn't know whether you were in bed or not." He said quietly, "I'm going to bed myself now, I have an early shift in the morning so, yeah, and you should head to bed soon too. Don't stay up revising too late now." He smiled at me.

"Yeah I won't Cha...Dad." I gave him a pleasant smile as he said goodnight and went into his room.

Great, I thought, not a chance of Alice coming now. I closed the door and turned around, and jumped out of my skin.

"Alice!" I half shouted.

She stood smiling at me, her golden eyes glowing in my bedside lamp. "Is this too late for you?" she asked, looking me up and down in my nightwear, which wasn't much at all. She looked back up at my face and breathed in then breathed out, a smug look across her face.

I shook my head and sat down on my bed, gesturing for her to sit also. She sat down and seemed surprised at the comfort of my bed.

"I wanted to talk to you, properly." A serious look came across her face. "Firstly, I wanted to apologize for the other day, you surprised me, which is rare for me to be surprised. I was also very hungry and you certainly didn't help. I said things I shouldn't have."

"It's okay." I stared into her eyes. She really did look like she was sorry, and not just saying it to be nice.

"Secondly, I really want to explain everything to you, so that you know everything. If you, want to be with me, you need to understand me fully. Who I am," she paused, "What I am."

I nodded. I wanted her to explain. I wanted to know everything about her, and I was so close.

"What I said to you two days ago, please forget everything I said. That's not what I'm really like, I was just, stuck for what to say to you. You didn't seem fazed at all by me being, a vampire, and I wanted you to know how dangerous I really can become. But that's not me."

Thoughts of the forest came flooding through my mind, how she'd much she's scared me by how fast and strong she was; things I could have never imagined, why wouldn't I want to forget? I didn't speak and allowed her to carry on. She looked away and started talking again.

"Yes I am extremely strong, and can move extremely fast, but maybe I should show you in another way some time, a more humane way." She nodded at herself, as if she was talking mostly to herself. "Being around you," she looked up at me, "Is extremely difficult for me. I can smell your blood, all the time. I can smell everyone's blood, but for me yours is, somehow `superior`." She smiled. "That's the only way I can really think about putting it. And as you know, vampires feed off blood." Her smile vanished and I swallowed hard. "But killing humans isn't something me and my family do. We, drink animal blood."

"Animal blood?" I questioned.

"Yes. Not as nice tasting, but it does the job and saves lives."

"So, let me get this straight." Alice sat up straight and looked at me intensely. "You and your whole family are vampires. Vampires normally feed off humans, drink their blood and in the process, kill them. But you don't, you drink animals blood instead?"

Alice nodded. "I believe that some vampires still have souls. I believe that's what makes us drink animal blood instead, because we have a conscience, but don't get me wrong, not all vampires think the same way we do. During the first few months of my life, I existed entirely on human blood, but after a while I seemed to get a, guilty feeling that I'd killed them." Alice looked away and seemed to be looking at something my eyes couldn't even make out. "I didn't know there was another way, until I met Carlisle. I had travelled up here, and had visions of a vampire coven, so I tried as hard as I could to find them, but it seemed like they found me first." She looked back up at me and laughed. "Riveting stuff."

I laughed also. "I'm interested in your life Alice!" I defended her, "I really wanted to ask you what has happened to you the other day but I didn't feel like you were really up for it."

"I wasn't, but I'm fine now. After I met Carlisle, he told me about another way that vampires could live, he showed me, taught me, and it didn't take me long at all to get used to it, and it's been like that since I met him really."

"Do you remember anything of your human life?"

Alice shook her head, "Not a thing."

"Is it like that for every vampire?" I asked.

"It's very mixed, some remember, some don't, others remember only parts, some remember every single detail. I'm glad I don't remember; I don't have anything to miss." Alice smiled at me, a smile I couldn't resist. "There is so much more to tell you, but I couldn't possibly tell you everything now, it would take too long."

"So much for telling me everything!" I teased, and raised my eyebrows at her. "Stay." I looked at her golden eyes once again.

She half shuffled, "Really?"

"Yeah, unless you need to get home for something?" I asked.

"No. And one more thing," she added, "Vampires don't sleep."

"Vampires don't sleep?" I leant forward I was so shocked. "Really, like, ever?"

Alice laughed at the ridiculous faces I was pulling and shook her head, "No we never sleep."

I stared at her open mouthed. "God, that would be nice to never have to sleep!"

Alice shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah but you never sleep, so you don't get the benefits of `a new day`. If you've had a bad day you can't just sleep it off."

"I guess." I said, "So that means then, if you're staying, that you can tell me more about you. Your family."

Alice smiled, "Yes it does." and in seeing me shiver she closed the window and pushed me back into my bed, resting for a second on top of me.

My heart beat faster and faster.

"I can hear your heart beating you know." She said with a sexy smile. "Vampires have amazing hearing, we can hear up to miles away."

"Really? Guess you don't get much peace then being at home with your family."

"Hmm. I do sometimes travel out into the woods to get a little more thinking space." She pulled herself off me and placed my quilt over my body. "So what else do you want to know then?"


	9. Chapter 9

"Vampires. In general. I want to know about Vampires in general."

"Okay." Alice smiled. "Starting with?"

"How do you become a vampire, and how do vampires die?"

"Gosh, ready to kill me already?" Alice laughed. "Well it's easy to become one; you just have to be bitten."

"Is that it?"

Alice nodded. "But you then have to suffer three very painful days before you become a vampire. Then when the pain finally stops, there's only one thing on your mind; blood." She looked deep into my eyes, as if searching for something. "It wears off after a year or two, but it doesn't stop the cravings altogether."

"Have you ever changed anyone?"

"Never. It's the hardest thing a vampire can do. Tasting human blood and not taking a drop of it. It's impossible for most. Carlisle is the best for that; he's changed three; Rosalie, Emmett and Esme. Carlisle has never killed a human, never drank human blood. That's why it doesn't affect him as much as it does everyone else."

"So if I bled now..."

"If you bled now I would run as fast as I could. I couldn't stop myself I really couldn't."

"Will that, get better over time?"

Alice nodded. "I hope so."

We stared at each other, getting lost in each other's eyes. She was so beautiful I just wanted to kiss her forever.

"And in answer to your second question," she broke the silence, "Vampires can die, but I'm not likely to tell you how."

"It's a well kept secret is it?"

"It is."

"Would it be stupid if I asked you, if vampires can actually turn into bats?"

Alice howled with laughter. I guessed it was a no. "Vampires can't change into anything. Being a human is surely enough of a disguise."

Good point. "Can you levitate or anything?"

Alice shook her head. "We do not die in sunlight, we are not scared of garlic, we don't sleep in coffins... any other myths I missed?"

I laughed. "I guess they really are just myths then."

"Every vampire has a special talent though."

"Oh."

"I can see the future."

She can see the future? "For real? Wow, you must have seen me coming." I said, looking up at the ceiling.

Alice smiled at me. "Carlisle has an amazing ability to stay away from blood and Esme has mothering skills better than anyone. Emmett is very very strong, much stronger than all of us, probably put together, and Rosalie has speed. She's the fastest vampire I've ever seen. Jasper can control people's emotions, calm them in situations, or raise their mood whereas Maria can stop an ability altogether, but only one's like mine and Jasper's."

I raised my eyebrows and worked my way further into bed, resting my head on the pillow.

Alice moved next to me and moved my head so that I was leaning on her chest, the coolness calming me. "You're tired, sleep." She said, stroking my hair. "I can tell you anything else you want to know in the morning."

"You'll still be here in the morning?"

"I'll stay here for as long as you like." Alice reassured me, and kissed my head.

"Just a few more questions first." I said, looking up at Alice. She nodded to indicate to carry on. "I can't hear your heartbeat." I said. "Do you have one?"

"A heart? Or a heartbeat?" she asked with a smirk.

"A heartbeat."

"No."

"So if you don't have a heartbeat, can vampires you know," I breathed in awkwardly, "Have sex?"

"Why not?" Alice asked.

"Well just general knowledge about what happens when people have sex, how you have sex, with no blood flow I wouldn't have thought it possible."

She laughed a gentle laugh and stroked my head. "Can I ask you a question?"

I nodded.

"Why do humans always think of sex?"

I laughed. "It's complicated." I said.

"Well then, yes, vampires can have sex, but it's complicated."

I looked up at her and smiled, she smiled a seductive smile back and I reached up and kissed her, leaning on her body. I opened my mouth and let her tongue touch mine. Everything was so cool. She pushed me on my back and I lifted my head as she kissed my neck, breathing cool air down my top. I whimpered slightly as she continued to move down, sending shivers down my spine. She lifted my top slightly and kissed my stomach, then moved back up to face me, and kissed me again, a deep, passionate kiss which lasted for what seemed like hours. She eventually broke the kiss and moved back to where she was lying before I kissed her.

"I'm sorry." She said, "I just can't, please wait a little while longer. It's still hard for me to, be around you like this."

I lay back and nodded, then faced her. "I'll wait as long as you want me to." And I snuggled myself down into her smooth cool neck, and fell asleep almost immediately.

[-]

I stood in the middle of the woods, looking around, searching for something.

"Alice!" I cried out, desperately, but no reply. "Alice!" Even louder this time. Nothing, nothing except for rustling trees and a howling wind. No Alice.

I walked a little farther, somehow knowing exactly where I was going. I started to run, and ran with lightning speed, eventually reaching what looked like a house. A man dressed in entire black was stood in front of me.

"You can't have Alice, I will kill you before you get to her!" He shouted and reached out to grab me. I wasn't fast enough to miss his grip, but thankfully it wasn't me he was reaching for.

I turned around and saw a sandy haired man in his grip, fangs protruding out of his mouth. I gasped in horror, what was I seeing? He threw the sandy haired man to the ground and went to stamp on him, but he was too quick. The man jumped from the floor and launched himself onto a branch high up a tree.

"You can't stop me!" he hissed, "I won't stop until I have her blood!"

He disappeared. He just vanished from thin air. I looked back at the man in black who had also disappeared. A few seconds later and he came out with Alice.

"Alice!" I shouted, but she didn't seem to hear me.

She looked around, terrified, staring at the man in black.

"I'm sorry Alice, this is all I can do to save you." He said, painfully.

I tried to look closer but my vision suddenly went blurry, and everything clouded over. I heard Alice scream and blindly ran for her, trying to find the cause of the scream, but there didn't seem to be one, it was everywhere, possibly even in my head. I continued running but was getting nowhere. I saw a pair of red eyes through the mist, staring at me. I stopped dead in my tracks, ready to run back to wherever I had just come from, but there was no time, it lurched at me and I awoke with a start, panting and breathing heavily, sweating profusely. I looked around my darkened room and could just make out Alice cradling me, trying to protect me from whatever dream I had just had. She ran her cool hands across my face and comforted me as best as she could. I sat in her arms for minutes, enjoying the bliss of being alone once again with Alice. Why did I keep having these horrible dreams? Maybe it was the whole vampire thing; maybe it was getting to me. I tried to shake the dream off and fell back asleep.


	10. Chapter 10

I woke up and sure enough, Alice was there. I smiled sleepily at her and snuggled into her, trying to fall back asleep.

"Haven't you had enough sleep?" She whispered to me.

I laughed gently and shook my head. I looked at the clock and saw it said seven o'clock. Okay maybe it was time to get up then. I sat up in bed and stretched. Alice moved to give me more space and in a flash moved over to the other side of my room.

"I'm going to get going now. I need to get the car, be ready in half an hour!" Alice said, and then jumped out of my window.

Half an hour I thought. Oh crap school! I rushed to get ready and sorted myself out.

It had been twenty-five minutes since Alice left, so I stood by my window and watched out for her. She arrived slightly early, so I ran downstairs, said goodbye to Charlie and jumped in Alice's car.

As Alice was driving, it didn't take long to get to school at all, and were there within ten minutes. We arrived and Alice parked as close to the school as she could and got out before I could even get my belt off. She opened my door for me and shut it when I got out. She put her arm around me and walked with me into school. I looked around the parking lot and everyone was watching.

"Everyone's watching us Alice." I said slightly self-consciously.

"Let them watch." She replied, holding me tighter and smirking gloriously.

I couldn't help but smile also, but her family didn't seem best pleased, especially the blonde girl, Rosalie. I ignored her; this was too good to be ruined by a vampire. Still seeing her family as vampires was odd for me, I still couldn't see it. Emmett maybe, but not Jasper or Maria. We continued to walk up to the school and passed Jessica, Angela and Mike. Jessica and Angela clearly were happy for me, and maybe had known more than what I thought, but mike looked very unimpressed. I smiled at them as we passed and was tempted to wave but I decided not to. Alice walked me to my first lesson, Maths, and then she left me for her lessons. I sat in my usual chair, and in came Angela and Mike. Angela winked at me and smiled, then sat behind me. Mike sat next to me but didn't say anything, he was obviously quite offended.

Fifteen minutes into the lesson and still not a word from Mike. I felt a tap on my right shoulder and turned around to see Angela holding a note. I took it off her and read it, being careful not to expose it to Mike.

_So how long have you been seeing Alice then? _

I smiled and put, _not long_

I handed the note back to her when Mike noticed and sighed. He looked away again and I decided to send a note of my own.

_Are you okay? What's up?_

He seemed surprised that I was even willing to talk to him, but he read and replied.

_Why do you insist on being friends with the Cullen's, never mind more?_

This angered me. He was having a go at me for being friends with them? I wasn't, it was only Alice, and I hadn't really spoken to the rest of them. And I could be friends or date whoever I wanted. I reminded him of this.

_You don't even know them Mike let it go, I can be with whoever I want!_

He didn't seem pleased with this and put the note in his pocket, obviously refusing to reply. That was fine with me. I answered a few more Maths questions then got another tap on the shoulder from Angela.

_I'm quite surprised I had no idea you were into girls, not that it matters to me! So how come you came to school with Alice this morning, she didn't stay over last night did she? Have you found out why they seem so weird to everyone else?_

I quickly slipped the note under my book as the teacher passed, then got it out again to reply.

_Yeah, I have been for a long time. Glad we can still be friends. She did stay over but nothing happened trust me, she'd rather wait until we knew each other properly before we did... anything. I don't actually know why anyone finds them weird anyway! I suppose they tend to keep to themselves, but I think it's just in their nature_

Their nature was to stay away from humans. Actually, their nature was to kill humans, not that I was going to tell Angela any of that of course. Alice hadn't mentioned anything about me not telling anyone, but I guess she trusts me.

The lesson was almost over thankfully, and in my next lesson I sat next to Angela. A few minutes later and the bell went. Mike half smiled at us and walked off to his next lesson, leaving me and Angela wondering what his problem was. Maybe he was jealous, or maybe he just really didn't like the Cullen's. Either way, it wasn't really any of his business what I got up to, and definitely was not his place to judge. English lesson was next and Angela sat next to me as she usually does. The lesson was five minutes in when the questions started.

"So what are the Cullen's really like?" she said, her eyes wide with excitement.

I shrugged. I really didn't know, because I'd never met them, only Alice. I told her this, which led her onto her next set of questions about Alice.

"How did you two even meet to start dating?"

Again I shrugged. "I just took a liking to her and I guess she did to me too." I looked at Angela and smiled.

"I think it's lovely, I mean, Alice looks like a very nice person. Slightly strange, but very nice."

I laughed at her latter comment. I could understand how they found Alice strange, even I did at times, but I knew why. They didn't'.

"Have you kissed her yet?"

This question took me completely off-guard, and I could feel myself turning bright red, and apparently, so did Angela.

"I'll take that as a yes." She said, smiling and turning to look back at her work.

I smiled too. The English lesson seemed to go extremely quickly, and before I knew it I was once again stood in the parking lot beside Alice. She had come over to stand with me, Angela, Jessica and Mike. They talked to her a lot, almost ignoring me completely, but I didn't mind; it gave me an excuse to look at Alice. Mike noticed this and left us. I let go of Alice and followed him into the school. He walked into an empty corridor and turned around to look at me.

"She's not good for you!" He shouted.

"How do you know Mike?"

"I can just sense something off about her, that's all."

I was quite taken aback with this, and at the end of the day I told Alice who said me he must know something. I shook my head and explained how highly unlikely this would be, but she said like me, maybe he had heard the "myths" about vampires living in Forks hundreds of years ago. I nodded in agreement. His dad owned a shop just outside the woods, and he worked there quite often. Maybe he had heard from Jake or one of Jake's friends. It could be possible, or maybe he really did just have a feeling.

Alice drove me home and stopped me just before I walked into my house.

"My family and I aren't going to be attending school tomorrow." She said, a dark tone slowly creeping into her voice. She looked me in the eye with her black eyes, and I immediately knew why.

I nodded to her, showing my understanding, and moved away from her, at which she laughed.

"I'm not that bad Bella!" She smiled at me and walked closer to me.

She pulled me next to her and kissed me. I was in heaven. I could taste her once again, feel her cool lips brushing mine, then she suddenly let go and went to get in her car.

I licked my lips and shouted to her, "Will you ever tell me how you can afford these cars?"

She smiled and nodded, then got in her car and sped away. I walked into the house looking as cheery as ever, which Charlie picked up on straight away. Just another day with Alice.


	11. Chapter 11

It was finally the weekend. My teachers had been very kind and given us no homework for the weekend, so I took the time to wash my car, inside and out. It needed it. Charlie offered to help, which I accepted, and then he got a call to go into work. There had been a lot of attacks recently.

"What kind of attacks?" I asked him.

"Animal attacks."

"Animal attacks?" I must have looked extremely shocked.

He sighed, "Bella, I keep telling you, you're not in Arizona anymore. Things like this happen, just usually not this often." The last comment he said was mainly to himself.

I nodded and waved him off. Animal attacks. I bet my money on Alice knowing something about these so called `animals`. I distracted myself by picking up the sponge and continuing to clean the car. The back was done, just the front. I bent down to clean the front wheel trims when I heard and almighty bang. I looked up and saw Alice standing on top of my car. She jumped down onto the hood, then in front of the car.

I smiled and said, "I do have neighbours you know!"

She laughed. "I was just coming to ask you something." She said, staring at me with her golden eyes.

"Okay."

"Would you like to come and meet my family tomorrow?" She asked with a smile.

"Your family?"

"Yes. Unless you don't want to."

"Of course I do but..." I paused and put the sponge down. "What if they don't like me?" I creased my eyebrows up and looked very concerned.

A smirk grew across Alice's face. "So you're not fazed by the fact you'll be in a house full of vampires, and you're more concerned on whether or not they will like you." Alice started to laugh and I felt myself going red.

She walked up to me and hugged me. I breathed in her scent and clung onto her, I didn't want to ever let her go. She pulled back.

"So I take that as a yes?" Alice said.

I nodded.

"I will come and pick you up tomorrow at twelve."

I nodded again. A meeting with Alice's family, with vampires?

"I have to go Bella, family business. I'll pick you up tomorrow." She smiled then suddenly was gone.

I was almost in a trance, so much so that I didn't hear Billy's truck pull up behind me. Jake slapped me on the back to which I jumped a mile. He quickly apologized as I started towards him, right fist raised. He laughed and so did I.

"Hey Bella!" He said enthusiastically with his childish grin.

"Hey Jake!"

"So where's your dad run off to?" Billy appeared from the side of the truck, wheeling himself next to Jake.

"He's gone to work, more animal attacks apparently." I gave Jake a half-smile which I soon passed on to Billy.

Billy shook his head. "Animal attacks. Just gets better."

"My dad said it does happen occasionally."

"Hmm." Billy looked very thoughtful, he obviously knew what the real cause was, and I had a good idea. Maybe Alice's family aren't as good as she's making them out to be.

I looked at Jake and could just make out my dad's cruiser on the road behind him.

"My dad's home."

Billy and Jake both turned around to watch my dad come down the road and pull onto the grass beside the house. He got out and to me, looked quite stressed. He walked up to meet us.

"Hey Billy! It's been a while. Jake." He shook hands with both Jake and Billy, and then invited them both in.

"How did work go dad?"

He sighed. "Seems like every sheriff in the county is interested in this case, I've gotta go back later and write a few reports. It's starting to look worrying now though."

You could have cut the atmosphere with a knife. I knew that me, Jake and Billy knew what was really causing these so called `attacks`, but my dad, a police officer, had no idea.

"Big game today Charlie!" Billy cut in, breaking the ice.

Charlie and Billy continued to talk about the football until I had finished making dad some dinner. He said he could make it himself, but I knew his cooking and thought it better for me to make him something. Billy and Charlie moved into the lounge with me and Jake, but instead we decided to go into the woods behind my house. Neither of us had the slightest interest in football.

We walked into the woods, talking about our weeks. I managed to not mention Alice, although it was very hard. I was going to bring it up at some point, but it needed to be the right time. There was a huge tree somewhere in the middle of the woods, and we found it, climbing up the branches like we used to when we were kids. We sat in silence, enjoying the quietness of the woods, no people, no cars, and no nothing. This was the right time.

"Jake."

"Yeah?" He turned to look at me.

"You know that story you told me on the beach, about the cold ones?"

He nodded.

"Do you think it's true?"

Jake looked away and picked at a nearby branch. "I don't know." He paused for a very long time, but I waited for him to answer fully. "I don't disbelieve what happened a hundred years ago, but whether the Cullen's are the same one's?" he shrugged, "I don't know." He looked back at me. "What do you think Bella?"

Didn't he mean, `What do you know?` I knew that although the story might have been right or slightly changed, the Cullen's in the story were most likely the Cullen's in Forks now. I shook my head at him and he took that as an `I don't know`.

"You speak to the Cullen's don't you? I heard from Mike you get on well with Alice."

I swallowed, hard. Damn Mike. "Yeah I am friends with her."

"So does she match the description I gave you?" He waited for me to answer, then cut in, "Pale, stone cold, different coloured eyes?"

I shrugged. "Jake I couldn't honestly tell you. They don't seem like. . . Cold one's to me." I chose my words carefully.

"Yeah but come on Bella, everyone thinks they're totally weird. Except you."

"What do you mean by that? You're not implying that I'm a vampire are you?"

Jake laughed. "Of course not! I'm just wondering what you see in them that everyone else doesn't."

"For a matter of fact, Jacob, I don't know her family, I just know her."

"So is she a vampire?"

He looked me straight in the eye. I didn't dare look away from him, that would have given it away. Could I really tell Jake? What would he do, say? Or did he already know and was he testing me.

I shrugged my shoulders and gave him my most sincere, "I honestly don't know Jake, I have never asked them and I haven't assumed anything."

He seemed slightly disappointed in me and looked away.

"Can't you get your other friends to do your dirty work for you?"

"MY dirty work Bella? You're the one who asked ME about it!"

Good point Jake but that wasn't going to wash. "Why can't you try to find out for yourself, I was only asking you what you thought!"

"Well guess what Bella, I can't ask them. They never come onto our land, which is why yes, I think they are vampires."

"Well you think what you want Jake." I said and climbed down from the tree. "And what do you mean, `our land`?"

Jake sighed. "I told you about the treaty. That will still stand today, and since they've moved here they have never set foot on our land, which makes them suspects."

A slight smile crossed my face, I loved how he placed them as `suspects`. "Well whichever way Jake we're still friends right?"

He jumped from the branch he was crouched on and landed right next to me. "If we have to be." He said with a smile.

"So you don't mind me going to see Alice's family tomorrow then?"

He paused. "Can't stop you." He said and started walking to the house.

We started talking about more light-hearted subjects but the thought of tomorrow was still on my mind. I was excited about seeing Alice's family, but I was also slightly worried. ` It'll be fine` I kept telling myself, and eventually it began to work.


	12. Chapter 12

Just like she said she would, Alice picked me up at twelve. She gave me a kiss and got into her Porsche, as did I. I was starting to get a little nervous about meeting her family, and I had no idea how different vampires were to humans. Alice could tell I was a little on edge, but left me to my thoughts which I silently thanked her for. It wasn't long before Alice turned off the freeway and onto a dirt road. The road was surrounded by trees, a forest I was guessing, then right at the bottom of the road, the biggest house I have ever seen. The whole front of the house was glass, with light wood colouring around the windows. It looked so modern and so... new! Alice parked in front of the garage and ran round to my door and opened it for me. She walked me to the front door and opened it, showing me through into the hall.

"Wow." I said, amazed at the size inside. "It's so big, and light and airy." I gawped up at the ceiling, miles above my head.

Alice laughed gently, "What were you expecting, coffins and dungeons?"

I laughed, "Yeah I was actually. I thought it would be a lot darker than this, it seems too bright for vampires to live here."

"Well they do!" She said happily, "Come on, I'll show you the rest of the house."

She led me up the stairs by my hand and showed me through into the kitchen first. She stood me in front of her family then said who was who. I recognised Rosalie and Emmett, the blonde girl and the big brown haired guy, but Carlisle and Esme I hadn't met before. Carlisle looked very young, maybe in his late twenty's, and Esme looked a little older. Like Rosalie, Carlisle had blonde hair, slicked back, and his wife had long, flowing deep brown hair. They were all extremely gorgeous, gorgeous beyond belief. Alice had previously told me that Carlisle was a doctor, and worked in the local hospital. How no-one had even thought about him being something different surprised me.

"Welcome Bella." Esme said, and gave me a very motherly hug, but it felt too cold and hard to be motherly.

I smiled at her in response. I wasn't afraid, not yet. Alice looked out of the back window and I followed her eyes, and saw Maria and Jasper jump in. They walked up to me and Maria also gave me a hug.

"So you're the human Alice has been banging on about!" She released me, "It's very nice to meet you, she has good taste." After her last comment she winked at me and Alice pulled me back very protectively, which Maria found relatively humorous, but my attention quickly moved to Jasper.

His dark eyes burned into mine, and I could almost feel him digging his teeth into me. There was a small smile across his lips, clearly at the thought of drinking my blood.

Carlisle gave a gentle cough. "Jasper's our newest family member; it's still very hard for him."

I didn't take my eyes off Jasper for a second.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." He said gently with a very strong southern accent, and bowed his head slightly.

"Don't worry Jasper won't hurt you, will you Jazz." Maria was talking mainly to Jasper as if to convince him he wasn't going to hurt me.

He didn't say anything; he just carried on staring at me with his smile. I looked back at Alice; he was starting to scare me a little. She got the hint and pulled me out of the room.

"Time to show you the rest of the house!" Alice said pleasantly. Always the optimist.

I smiled at her family and said, "Nice to meet you." as Alice continued to pull me farther away from her family.

We walked up yet another staircase when I started laughing nervously. Alice stopped turned around and had a confused look on her face.

I stopped also and shrugged my shoulders at her, "That went well!" I continued laughing.

"Bella, you are the first human to be introduced formally to my family. It was bound to go," she paused, "Not as smooth as everyone hoped. I think it went quite well!"

"Well yeah if you consider `going well` to be `not getting eaten`!"

Alice chuckled. "For the record Bella," she started walking again, "We do not `eat` people. We're vampires not cannibals." She looked at me from the corner of her eye.

We reached the top of the stairs. There were seven doors. I stared in amazement. This house was bigger than it looked! Alice led me to the door on the very far right of the landing, and opened the door, letting me in first. I stood in the middle of the huge room and looked around me. To the right was a bookshelf filled with books of all sorts. I recognised some newly published books as well as some old classics such as Charles Dickens and Shakespeare. Further along the bookshelf were Vinyl's and CD's. On the middle shelf was a record player, and above that a hi-fi system, one of the best I had ever seen. I bet this thing could blast out some real bass! Next to it was a very expensive looking docking station, with a brand new iPod in it. I was in awe at the amount of money that was in this room alone. I reached the far end of the bedroom and made my way back slowly to the door. There were mostly ornaments on this side of the room, ranging from very old to very new. All along this side of the room were windows. Huge windows, with a fantastic view of the forest next to their house. I could see Alice standing behind me, watching my every move, as if fascinated by me. I managed to draw my eyes from the view and looked at Alice. She smiled at me.

"Do you like it?"

I laughed, and for a split second she looked self-conscious, quickly regaining her former smile.

"I love it Alice! Who wouldn't want a room like this?"

A broad smile crossed her face. "I'm glad you like it, I was worried you wouldn't."

"Alice your whole house is epic! I wish I lived somewhere like this."

"You can." Alice said.

The smile left my face, I knew what she meant. Swallowing hard, I looked deep into her eyes. "Alice I can't." I shook my head.

"Is it something you've ever thought about?"

It wasn't. In all the time I had spent with Alice, thinking about Alice, and everything else with Alice, the one thought that had never crossed my mind was whether or not I would ever want to become a vampire. I shook my head at her and she nodded in response.

"Maybe it's something we should talk about sometime."

"How about now?" I suggested.

She sighed. "Not here."

She suddenly grabbed me and jumped out of her window. I didn't remember it being open but maybe she had been quick in that too. She ran through the forest like lightening and within minutes reached a cliff edge. There was a tree which had fallen by the edge, and she sat me on that. She sat next to me and looked at me.

"I think it really is something we need to talk about."

I looked at the ground. "I don't."

"So you're saying you don't want to become a vampire?"

"I didn't say that!" I replied, getting slightly agitated. "I haven't known you as a vampire for long, I don't know everything about vampires, how do you expect me to choose?" I looked at Alice with harsh eyes, but regretted it almost instantly and toned down my look.

"I don't expect you to choose, but if something goes wrong Bella. That's what I'm worried about."

She did sound genuinely worried, but that didn't change anything.

"You wouldn't hurt me." I knew she wouldn't, and she should have too.

"It's not me I'm concerned about Bella. Not all vampires are as. . . Friendly, as we are."

"I'm young Alice, can I not have a bit of fun?"

"You can, but vampires are dangerous creatures. You're playing with death Bella. I'm not saying I don't want to be with you, I do, and I want to protect you, and I will as long as you live, no matter what choices you make, but if you're with me you're in a lot more danger than if you are not with me."

Alice looked as if she was going to cry, and if she was human I would say she would.

"I just love you so much Bella and I want you to know what you're getting yourself into."

"I love you too. I know the dangers, I don't care. I want to be with you, and nothing will stop me. I'll be a lot happier if I'm with you than if I'm not."

Alice smiled at me, and hugged me. Her scent travelled up my nose and filled me with happiness.

"I don't mean to ruin your day." Alice said light-heartedly.

"You haven't, but please don't make me choose just yet."

Alice nodded.

"I promise I will make a choice, but just not yet."

Alice nodded again, and asked me if I wanted to go back to her house. I nodded and she ran me back and straight into her bedroom.

I looked around again, and still felt that something was missing. I could clearly see there was no bed, but I didn't know it would make such an impact.

"I wish you had a bed Alice." I said, and walked over to her, putting my arm around her body.

She sighed. "You do realise my family can hear everything you're saying don't you." She looked at me with a wicked smile.

I laughed out of humiliation. Great! I had only seen them once, the first human to be introduced formally to the vampire family and one of the only things they hear me say is how much I want to bed Alice. I didn't dare look at anyone in her family for the rest of the day, although they seemed to have forgotten. They could probably sense my humiliation and left me alone. I got home by Alice driving me home, somewhat faster than what I wanted, but I did get home faster than I should have done.

"Thanks for coming round today." Alice said as she walked me to the front door.

I smiled and kissed her before she walked back to her car.

"Oh!" She said and turned around to look at me, "I'll make sure I invest in a bed." She winked at me and got in her car speeding off.

God damn could that woman turn me on.


	13. Chapter 13

There was a knock on the door, so unwillingly I got up from the sofa and opened the door.

"Hi Bella!"

It was Jake.

"Hey! Come in!"

I was so happy to see Jake, it had been so long. I welcomed him in and he sat on the stairs taking his shoes off.

"Charlie said he was staying the day at Billy's so I thought I'd pop round and give you some company." His glorious smile beamed up at me.

I smiled at him and welcomed him into the lounge. He stopped dead at the door and went noticeably pale. I smiled wryly at him, then at Alice. He looked at me with disgrace, and then walked back into the hall.

"Bella, I. . ."

"Said you couldn't stop me from seeing Alice!" I reminded him.

He huffed and I could almost feel his anger.

"Jake." I said softly. There was no telling whether this helped or not, but I looked him deep in the eyes. "Jake please."

He shook his head and looked around the hall, then back at me. "She's a vampire Bella!"

There was nothing I could say to that, it was true. "That doesn't change anything." I managed to squeeze out, although I knew this wasn't true.

"Bella it changes everything! She's dead, not even alive! She probably just wants to kill you!"

"Jake please!"

"No!" He shouted this time, "She is putting your life in danger, she or one of her bloodsucking friends could kill you at anytime and no-one could stop them!" and a second later Alice was stood in front of me.

"Don't even think about threatening her!" Alice said, perfectly calmly. He hadn't threatened me, but maybe he was planning on it.

Jake laughed. "I'm not scared of you." He whispered to Alice, his voice equally calm. After a moment he looked at me. "So how long have you been giving her your blood?"

I shook my head in disbelief. "She hasn't, and what would it matter to you?"

"It matters everything! Why hasn't she? Because she can't? Because if she does, she'll kill you? What would Charlie say?"

"Charlie doesn't know, and won't know." Alice cut in, still standing firmly in front of me. She stalked a little closer to Jake. "I suggest you leave."

"You can't tell him Jake." I pleaded with him.

"You can't stop me." He said giving me a harsh look, almost breaking his beautiful face, and grabbed his shoes and stormed out.

I hadn't moved an inch. What had just happened? Alice turned around and hugged me, at which I resisted. She looked confused, but I was in no mood for love.


	14. Chapter 14

I'd had my first argument with Jake. It hurt so much. I didn't know why, because he was just a friend, but it felt as if I'd lost part of myself when he walked out. I hadn't felt like that about any of my other friends. Alice could sense my hurt and I think was feeling a bit jealous of the love I felt for him. Wait, love? That thought caught me totally off guard. Alice was sat opposite me, staring intently at my face, maybe she was trying to read my thoughts, or read my emotions. Whatever she was trying to do wasn't working because she got herself worked up and left. I sat alone in my living room, probably the worst thing I could be doing. Jake hated Alice now that he had found out she really was a vampire, but I still wanted to be friends with him. Couldn't he just get along with her for me? I decided to call him, he should be home by now I thought but he wasn't. I asked Billy where he was but he said he didn't know. I thanked him and put the phone down. Back to my own thoughts in the living room. I put on the telly but it didn't make me feel any better.

After ten minutes of watching MTV there was a knock on the door. I got up and sauntered over. I opened the door and Charlie beamed at me.

"Hey Bella, fancy helping me shift some of this stuff into the kitchen?"

He pointed to his car, which was full with shopping bags. I helped him and put everything away in my fashion, as I was the only one who used the kitchen now anyway. He mentioned something about being hungry, so I made something to eat. He sat at the small kitchen table placed by the window, and read the newspaper. He obviously hadn't finished reading it this morning. I stood with my back to the sink and stared out of the window, thoughts elsewhere. Surprisingly Charlie picked up on this and asked me if I was okay.

"Yeah I'm fine." I lied.

"Jake didn't stay long, you two not get along anymore?" He said, wiping his mouth.

I shrugged. "We had a bit of a disagreement."

"Over?"

I sighed. I might as well tell him I thought. "Alice."

"Alice?"

"Yeah. He doesn't really like her, he thinks I should. . . Choose someone else to spend my time with."

Charlie nodded. "Well you do spend an awful lot of time with her." He agreed.

"Yeah but I like her." Maybe it was time to tell him.

"Yeah I can tell." He said quietly.

A knock on the door. "I'll answer it." I said as Charlie looked at me, making no movements to get up.

I walked over to the door and opened it. There stood Alice with a huge smile on her face. I motioned her to come in and she did. She followed me into the kitchen and gave Charlie a pleasant hello. He smiled and nodded in reply, then looked back at his paper.

Alice looked at me then nodded towards Charlie. I shrugged my shoulders and she rolled her eyes.

"So Charlie, Bella and I have been thinking," she paused to wait until she had his full attention, which took not even seconds, "And we thought it would be a good time to tell you." She finished her line and looked at me.

I looked at Alice then back at Charlie, then back at Alice. "Tell him what?" I scrunched my face up.

Alice sighed and looked at Charlie. "This might come as a bit of a shock to you, but we have been dating for a few months."

Charlie almost choked on air, "What? Bella?"

I looked at the floor. I didn't want him to be annoyed at me, but at the same time wanted him to know. I felt a hand on my right arm, Charlie. He hugged me, which to be honest did seem a bit awkward, and told me it was alright. He stepped away from me and I saw that Alice was gone. I looked around for her but something told me she left to leave me and Charlie alone to talk. He led me into the lounge and we sat on the sofa, just talking about things for a while.

We must have been sat for at least two hours, talking things through. It felt good to finally tell Charlie everything; there really was nothing left to tell. I think it made him feel closer to me, which he seemed pleased about as he wasn't in the dark about anything.

I looked out of the window and saw the black clouds over head. Great I thought, a thunderstorm. I looked back into the lounge when something Yellow caught my eye. I looked back out and saw Alice's yellow Porsche sat at the bottom of our drive. My stomach lurched. I went to the door and let Alice in. She smiled at me, gave me a hug then went into the lounge and started speaking to Charlie before I had even shut the door. I smiled to myself.

"Well I think that'd probably cheer her up a bit, but she's not really the sporty type." I heard Charlie say as I walked back into the lounge.

Alice turned around and walked up to me.

"I was wondering if you wanted to come and play baseball with my family, it'd cheer you up a bit!" she said enthusiastically.

I nodded and smiled at her.

"Great!" She squealed, and I got my stuff and left.

She drove me to her house and parked the car in the Garage. It was huge, big enough to fit at least 7 large cars in. It was just at the side of the house, and what I presumed to be under the house as well. Alice got out, grabbed my stuff and disappeared. I sat in her car and decided to just wait for her; I didn't know what she was up to. A few seconds later and she re-appeared, leaning on the side of the Jeep next to us.

"Well get in!" She said with a smile, and I did as I was told, not even asking what she did with my things.


	15. Chapter 15

I sat in the Jeep, looking around the rest of the Garage. The rest of the cars were covered up in black car covers, but from what I could make out, they were all pretty big and expensive cars. Alice started the engine and drove out of the Garage and down the dirt road. About halfway down she made a sharp left turn and drove into the forest.

"This is why we need a Jeep." Alice told me, taking her eyes off the forest in front for longer than what was necessary.

Trees whipped past and bushes scratched along the side of the Jeep. Deeper in the forest it was starting to get very muddy, and I knew that the white paintwork wasn't going to last long. By the time we had reached a clearing I could see through the side mirror that the car was now a murky grey colour. I looked out of the front window and saw the rest of her family stood in the clearing in the middle.

"This is it." She said cheerfully as she pulled the handbrake on.

She took her belt off and got out, as did I and she waited for me before she started walking towards her family.

"We're going to be playing Baseball. I thought I'd invite you because it's not like normal Baseball." She looked at me with a smirk.

"How come?" I asked.

"Well," Alice started, "Firstly, we can only play when it's stormy, you'll see why in a bit, and secondly, because of how much faster and stronger we are than humans. We don't expect you to join in, so you can be Umpire with Esme."

The thought of Alice running miles an hour and throwing the ball far away into the distance crossed my mind.

"I'm the pitcher." She said, "It's taken a while but I've now perfected my playing style." She said proudly. "Baseball is one of the highlights of being a vampire for me; I've always loved the sport. . . I think."

I smiled, "So why don't you play for a team then?"

"Hmm not allowed Bella! Can you imagine the look on people's faces if we broke out into a full speed run in the middle of the pitch? Besides, we are way too fast and strong to compete with humans, so it's forbidden."

"Not that I'm boasting at all." I mocked Alice, who was very unimpressed with my rendition of her.

She pulled me close and hugged me whilst I stood next to Esme, who was explaining the rules to me. I already knew the basic rules to Baseball, but some were bent for obvious reasons. Alice gave me a quick kiss then disappeared to her position on the field. She stood straight up, ball in hand, and then did the most impressive pitch I had ever seen. She almost did the splits as she pulled the ball back, then launched it forward towards Carlisle who was the first to bat. He hit the ball in perfect timing with the lightening which sent the ball flying straight out of my viewing distance.

"So that's why you need the storm!" I said to Esme, laughing.

She probably nodded, but I wasn't looking at her, as the ball was flying back in my direction. I ducked, but it hit Maria's hand with a smash and she threw her hand to the floor.

"IN!" Screamed Esme, clearly proud of her Husband who walked off smiling to himself.

I looked at Esme in pure disbelief, how on earth had she seen that? It was so quick. . .

"Do you want to judge the next one?" She asked, a small smile crossing her lips.

"I'll have a go!" I said, sounding eager when I wasn't.

Up next was Rosalie. Great, she was bound to look at me with distaste for something. She swung her bat around, and then resumed the proper positioning. Alice once again worked her magic and Rosalie hit the ball with an almighty crack. Like Carlisle she had started running immediately as the ball once again flew out of my view. Emmett soon returned it and Maria smacked it down as Rosalie slid on the ground to the last post, but from what I saw, she was out.

"Out?" I said questioningly.

Maria jumped in the air with a long "YES!" then threw the ball back to Alice who winked at me. Rosalie stood up and pushed past me as she walked to stand behind Carlisle. Jasper was up next. He, like Rosalie, swung the bat in an art form before he stood to hit the ball. The thunder was rumbling and lightning struck nearby, which seemed to power him up. He hit it, and it was the hardest hit I had seen all match! I looked at Alice to see her reaction, but her face was blank and she wasn't moving.

"STOP!" She shouted and everyone heard her immediately and ran together forming a circle.

"Alice what is it?" Carlisle asked calmly.

"They're here, they heard us playing and decided to come to us, they weren't planning on it!" Alice said frantically.

Carlisle looked over Alice's shoulder and three people came into view from the forest. In a split second Alice grabbed me and held me tight, but I didn't look at her, I was looking at the three people coming into view.

On the far left was a tall man, with long sandy hair, held by a band of some sort. His lips were pulled tightly together, his eyes black as the night. The second person had dark skin, with bold red eyes. As they came closer I could see even more of their facial features, and saw that all three were very beautiful people. The dark skinned man had his black hair in dreadlocks, so I guessed he was Caribbean. The person on the far right was a woman, with flaming red hair which flowed freely down her back and over her chest. Her eyes were red, just like the dark skinned man.

Fear instantly filled me up, as I took in their red eyes, piercing, but intriguing. Alice held me even tighter, if that was possible and the rest of her family stood in front of us, protecting us. I felt safe in Alice's arms, but something told me these three were very dangerous. I looked over at Carlisle who had a cool look on his face, as did Esme, but the rest of them had their guard up.

"Hello." The dark skinned man said, "We heard you playing Baseball, do you mind if we join in?" He paused and waited for a reply, but there wasn't one. He laughed gently, "My name is Laurent, this is James, and Victoria."

He had a strange accent which proved my theories of him being Caribbean. The sandy haired man, James, smiled an evil smile at me, whereas Victoria looked slightly friendlier, although I knew this wouldn't be true.

"So what do you say?" Laurent said, "Could you do with three more players?"

James looked at me then bared his teeth at me, growling and launching himself at me. I gasped and Alice pulled me away, but Rosalie pushed him away. He seemed to regain part of himself, but not completely.

"I see you brought a human." Laurent said coolly.

I had also gained Victoria's unwanted attention.

"She's with us." Carlisle said calmly, "And she is leaving us now, so we will be two players down, you may join us." He threw the ball at Laurent who barely moved to catch the ball.

"Great." He laughed, but James didn't move. "James, come."

But James didn't move, he bared his teeth again, but this was enough for all of them.

"I think maybe you should leave." Carlisle suggested, sighing, and Laurent took his word.

Without moving his eyes from James he nodded. "Come, James." He ordered him this time and James pulled back, hissing wildly at me.

I looked away and buried myself in Alice's arms, when she let go, and stood perfectly still. Her eyes darted back and forth, and then she looked straight at Carlisle.

"We have to leave. He's going to track her." She said, then scooped me up and ran back to the Jeep.

Her family followed her and she told them everything. I got parts of it, but the parts I did get I didn't quite understand. She Jumped into the car and set off before she had even put her belt on. I looked in the rear-view mirror and her family had disappeared. I looked at Alice who was in a sort of trance, just driving, but I knew that she knew where she was driving to.

No more than five minutes later we had arrived back at the Garage. Her family were sorting things out, filling cars with food and clothes that I guessed were for me. I got out of the car and Alice appeared in front of me.

"You have to tell Charlie you're staying at our house tonight, don't give him any details, just tell him you're staying then hang up, call from our house phone, and hurry Bella."

I knew that if Alice was panicking it was bad, so I did exactly as she said.


	16. Chapter 16

I walked into the house, it was safer than running, and picked up the house phone closest to the garage. I punched the numbers in and held the phone to my ear, waiting for the ring. A few seconds later and I heard Charlie's voice.

"Hello."

"Hey, dad, it's me."

"Hey Bella, is everything alright?" He sounded slightly worried, so I upped my tone so that he wouldn't think anything of this call.

"Yeah, I'm staying at Alice's house tonight, is that okay?" I tried to sound as cheery as I could, but the thought of James coming after me was scaring me... was he even coming after me, or the Cullen's?

"Well," He sighed, "Seems like you've already sorted everything out, I suppose I can't stop you."

"Thanks dad! I've gotta go sorry, just a quick call. I'll see you soon..." Then I trailed off, would I see him soon, or would I never see him again?

"Yeah, have a good time. See you soon Bella."

And with that he hung up. I put the phone back where it came from and turned around to find Alice stood there. She had no smile on her face, no emotion what-so-ever.

"It's that bad eh?" I said. Alice was always the happy one; she had an amazing personality, especially for a vampire.

She looked away, obviously not wanting to answer. Carlisle walked up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Everything will be fine." Carlisle re-assured me.

He looked at me with a smile, but it wasn't that convincing. I walked up to Alice and threw myself around her. I loved her so much.

"Can you please tell me what's really going on?"

She nodded sombrely, then put her arm through mine and pulled me into the garage, motioning me to sit in the nearest car, her Porsche.

I got in the passenger side whilst she ran round and was in the driver seat before I had even shut the door. She looked at me intently, and I looked deep into her eyes, her gorgeous golden eyes.

"James is a hunter." She started, "He wants your blood, and he will not stop until he gets it. When I said he was a tracker, I meant it. Some vampires have an ability to follow a certain scent, no matter which way they go, and how many paths they cross. James is one of these vampires. He got your scent, probably in the wind of the storm, and so he knows your scent. He'll be able to follow you anywhere."

I took it all in, but felt strangely numb. For the first time in my life with Alice, I felt scared. Questions flooded into my head, too many that I couldn't even think enough to get one out. I just looked at Alice with a desperate look on my face. I gathered my thoughts together and forced out what seemed at the time, the most important question I had in my mind.

"Why me?"

Alice shrugged. "I don't know for sure, but I do think, however, that it is because of our relationship."

I seemed taken aback. "What? What's his problem with it?"

"He doesn't have a problem with it, but it means more fun for him."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, that he is choosing you because you are in love with me, and I am in love with you. You have me to protect you, but he doesn't see that as threatening, to him it's all one big game. He knows that I will do anything to save you, and that's fun for him because it's his game. All he has to do is threaten you, and he knows that I'll be there. He will get pleasure in hurting you in front of me."

My face crumpled. "That's sick." I looked at Alice with horror written all over my face.

Alice came closer to me, our noses almost brushing. "That's vampires for you Bella."

"You're not like that, you're family aren't like that." I whispered.

She smiled at me again. "We're not. But you have to remember that not all vampires are like us."

"I try not to think about that." I said honestly.

She put her hand on my face and rubbed gently, sighing. A knock on the window scared me to death, and turning around in my seat was greeted by Rosalie. Alice got out of the car and so did I. Rosalie got into Alice's Porsche and sat there as if she was waiting for her. Alice walked me round to where Jasper and Maria were stood.

"It's safer if you don't go with me, it's what he'll be expecting. Jasper and Maria won't let anything happen to you, I trust them."

I nodded, but the thought of leaving Alice was tearing me up inside. What if I never saw her again? This thought reminded me of Charlie which brought tears to my eyes. Alice grabbed me and pulled me into a hug, gripping me so tightly. I hugged her back and slowly tears ran down my face. I scrunched my eyes together and dried them on Alice's shoulders which were in perfect place for me to lay my head on. I felt another hand rub my back and I lifted my head to see Esme. Alice wiped the remaining tears away and I pulled myself together.

"I'm sorry." I apologized to Alice and the rest of her family.

"Don't be sorry for being human Bella." Esme said. "It's natural, we understand, but try not to worry, you will be fine we promise you."

I smiled and gave Esme a hug before I turned back to Alice. Alice pulled me into her and kissed me passionately. I didn't care that her whole family were there, I loved Alice and nothing would stop this moment. A few moments later and she pulled away and walked over to her car, not moving her eyes from mine. Maria put her arms around me and pulled me to the car, a brand new Mercedes-Benz. Like a gentleman, Jasper held the door open for me and Maria, and we both got into the back seat. Jasper shut it after us then got into the driver's seat. I looked out of the window and saw Alice move slowly further away from me.

We were the first car to leave. I had no idea where the others were going, but I was too scared to ask, hell, I didn't even know where I was going. Maria held my hand, obviously feeling my emotions. When we were on the freeway, I suddenly felt calmness wash over me. It was nice, like a release from everything that happened. Maria pulled my head into her shoulder and told me it would be a long journey, so to sleep. Like Alice, her skin was cold and her shoulder hard, but somehow comforting. Trying to pretend that Maria was Alice was too painful for me, so I just let the calmness wash over me and I fell asleep.


	17. Chapter 17

I opened my eyes and saw the sun shine on me. I closed my eyes again to block out the sun, but something had caught the corner of my eye, it was Maria. Her neck was sparkling in the sunlight. I didn't move my head, just my eyes, and watched as the sunlight reflected off her beautiful skin, like a million tiny diamonds embedded in her skin. I moved my eyes over to my left and could see Jasper in the driving seat. He wore a long sleeve top that covered most of his skin including his neck and had covered the sun from his face. This was probably so that other drivers wouldn't catch a glimpse of his skin sparkling. I closed my eyes again, and rested. I didn't know how long I had been asleep, but I was guessing it was early in the morning due to the suns position in the sky.

"How are you?" Maria whispered, so much so that I could barely hear it.

I just nodded in response. I didn't feel much like talking, I was tired and was missing Alice. I had no idea where she was now, and this made me want to know, so I decided that talking wasn't such a bad idea.

"Where's Alice gone?" I asked Maria sleepily, not moving my head from her shoulders.

"She's with Rosalie and Emmett, looking for a trace of James. Alice has tried looking into the future but it hasn't brought anything up yet."

"Have they found any trace of him yet?"

I felt Maria shake her head and I sighed. "They took some of your clothes to wear to try and lure James away from us. We're both going in opposite directions, so we'll just have to see whether he buys it or if he has worked it out yet. If we can get you and James far enough away then we can intercept him and get him before he gets you."

"Nice way of putting it Maria, thanks."

"Sorry." She apologized.

I stayed leaning on Maria, and still felt comforted by the calming feeling throughout the car. I thought more about it and remembered that Jasper could control people's emotions, and that's probably why I felt so calm. I silently thanked him, and closed my eyes again. Maria put her hand on my head and rubbed my hair gently.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"6 am."

I groaned. I knew it was early but I didn't think it was that early. I wondered where we actually were, and where we were going. I considered asking Maria but decided to just wait.

About an hour later and we arrived at a hotel. Jasper parked the car right in front of the hotel, in the shade, and got my packed things out of the car.

"Wait, I've just thought." I said, getting out of the car and rubbing my ear to warm it up, "Where did you get all of my clothes from?" I looked at Maria questioningly.

"Rosalie, unwillingly, got some clothes for you whilst Alice was sorting you out and bringing you home. She ran straight from the baseball field to your house."

"Wow she was quick."

Maria nodded. "She's the quickest in our family so it made sense to send her. Although she did complain all the way there and all the way back. She wasn't very happy in having to smell like you, but Alice got very agitated with her and lost her temper a bit. That's why she wasn't in the best mood when she spoke to you after the phone call, and why Rosalie was so off with you in the garage."

I picked up the one small bag that was left from the car, and followed Jasper and Maria into the hotel. Rosalie was the strangest person that I had ever met. It crossed my mind a few times about why she hated me so much. Maybe she just didn't like me, maybe it was that I'm human, or maybe she's just really a bitch. Whichever way, I supposed it wouldn't make a difference, so I focused more on what was happening now. Jasper had stopped me just short of the reception area and let Maria do all the talking. Five minutes later and we were sat in the room Maria had bought for the weekend. I was sat on the sofa next to Maria, Jasper sat opposite us, his teeth clenched slightly. We sat there in utter silence. Maria and Jasper looked like perfectly sculptures statues, and didn't move an inch, whereas I was sat there noisily breathing and moving my legs around. I couldn't keep still. I needed to know what was going on. I leant back on the sofa and looked up at the ceiling, trying to think of nothing. But thinking of nothing is impossible, so I distracted myself with trying to think of nothing. My silent nothing was interrupted by Jasper's phone, which was answered within half a ring.

"Alice." He said.

Alice. My heart skipped a beat.

"What?" He shouted.

Maria and I leant forward in unison.

"How did this happen?" He whispered. I had just made it out, but the next part I couldn't hear.

Maria's face started to turn sour, and I started panicking. Jasper continued to mumble consistently through the phone. Maria gently pushed me back onto the sofa and looked at me with a smile.

"It'll be alright." She whispered.

"But what if it isn't?" I could feel myself welling up again.

I was interrupted by my own phone this time, it was my mom. I walked into the bedroom to answer my phone, not that it would have made a difference.

"Mom."

"Bella? Bella?"

"Mom! Is everything alright?" I was panicking once again.

A cruel laugh came from the phone and I took it away to look at the number again, it was definitely Mom.

"Who is this?" I asked.

"Someone... familiar." My heart stopped.

"James."

"That's right." He laughed again. "Why do you have to make this so difficult Bella? What are you running away from?"

I stayed silent. I didn't know how to answer him, or even if I wanted to answer him.

"Hmm. Seems like Bella doesn't want to play. Well, I'm going to make you play. You see Bella, your mom here doesn't have a clue who I am or what I'm doing, but she knows what I want. And guess what? There is nothing she can do to stop me."

I swallowed hard. Mom. Why was he doing this?

"I was having a look through some, information, I gained on you, and it seems that you went to a ballet school, am I correct?"

I didn't want to answer but something inside of me forced myself to. "Yes."

"Aah, Bella has a voice at last. I want you to meet me there. I'm giving you one day. If you don't turn up, well, let's just say your mom won't be seeing you very soon."

"Leave her alone!" I half shouted, then instantly stopped myself as I remembered Maria and Jasper were in the other room.

That same laugh again. I wanted to kill him.

"And don't think about bringing any of your friends either. And I'll know if you do."

The phone line went dead. I wanted to cry. I was so upset, angry, hurt. I dropped the phone to the floor and slumped on the bed. Maria came bursting through the door and held me in her arms. I cried more, but I couldn't tell her. It took me a couple of minutes to recompose myself, but once I had, Maria asked me what it was that had upset me. I lied through my teeth and told her that it was everything getting to me, that it was all on top of me. I said that I had spoken to my mom, just in case she planned on checking my phone, and said that made me feel worse. She believed me. She told me that the phone call was from Alice, as I had probably gathered, and that they had lost James and he was probably heading in our direction. Just the mention of his name made me feel sick to my stomach. I just nodded in reply to everything she said. I was starting to go numb again. I needed Alice, so badly. Maria led me back into the lounge and sat me back down on the sofa. Jasper looked slightly uncomfortable with my re-appearance, but didn't move and inch. I needed to get out of here and meet James. I had no idea how to do it, but I knew I had to. A few minutes later and I decided to ask Maria to let me go downstairs and get some fresh air, which strangely, she agreed. She let me go by myself, and rather than waiting I jumped straight into a taxi outside and told him where to go.


	18. Chapter 18

I stood in the doorway of the ballet hall. So many memories flooded through my mind as I walked to the door and opened it. It was already unlocked so I guessed that James was inside waiting for me. I closed the door quietly behind me and crept through the entrance, trying to find where James would be. I looked around and saw four doors along a corridor, one of which was open. I headed for this door. As I got closer, my heart beat faster and faster. I tried to swallow but my mouth was too dry, so I just made a strange noise then gave up trying. My breathing had quickened which I tried so hard to calm down, but found it almost impossible. I reached the door and looked through. He wasn't stood there waiting for me as I thought he would have been. A little panic left me, but as I stepped through the door it soon found me again. I walked a little further and saw mirrors surrounding the room. I started to appear in the mirrors as I got deeper into the room, and my senses seemed to heighten. I held my breath and listened very carefully. Nothing. It was silent in here. This scared me a little more, but I trudged on. Something told me to carry on, and I did. I got to the end, and heard a whispering. I seemed to be coming from the room at the end of the hall, so I broke into a run and flung the doors open, but nothing. Something landed behind me and I flipped round and screamed. James. He grasped me by my face and covered my mouth. I could no longer scream, but I still tried. He held me at arm's length, lifting me high into the air, and pushed me against the back wall.

"So you came." He said approvingly.

Whimpers started to escape from my mouth, but hit James' hand and were muffled instantly. He laughed that laugh I heard whilst on the phone. I shuddered as his black eyes bored into mine. The twisted smile on his face showed that he was very much enjoying this. He let go of my face and I dropped to the ground like a stone, landing on my left side. I felt a sharp pain in my arm, but it didn't last for long as James got close to me and grabbed my other arm. He pulled me back onto my feet and then threw me to the floor. This time it really hurt and I could hear his laugh echoing through the room which made me feel worse. I tried not to look up at him, but he was holding something with a red light on the end. A video recorder. I gulped and tried to push myself up and propped myself against the wall.

"Alice would love to see this. She would love to see how much I tortured you before I drained your body of all your blood; that sweet smelling blood. Almost the best smelling blood, but there was someone's who was better than yours; Alice's."

I looked at him, my eyes wide. He had known Alice when she was a human?

"That's right. I knew Alice. Well, I was tracking Alice. I followed her to the asylum she was kept in, which was guarded by a vampire. I tried my hardest to kill her, I did everything in my power, but it wasn't enough, and she slipped through my fingers. Seeing her again reminded me of what she did to me, so I thought it was time for payback, but then I noticed you; a human. I could see how much she cared for you, feel her love for you, and this made me laugh. It was like it had all been set up for me. You are what I want. I'm going to kill you, and Alice won't be able to stop me. I'm going to record you whilst I break all your bones, and drain you."

I was breathing extremely rapidly. Reminding me of Alice was not a good idea. Tears started yet again. I couldn't move, no matter how much I tried. It was like I was glued to the spot. Surely Maria had noticed I was gone by now, would they be able to track my scent to here? James didn't give me much time to my thoughts, and grabbed me by the arm yet again and flung me to the other side of the room. I hit a mirror and smashed it, sending glass flying everywhere. Most of it hit me in the face, on the arm, and one bit stuck deep into my leg. I pulled it out as I screamed. Never had I felt pain like this. James jumped to where I was and crouched in front of me, pointing the camera at my leg.

"Nasty wound you got there Bella."

He stood up again and stomped on my leg. I screamed in pain, like nothing I had ever felt. I had heard my leg snap, so I knew exactly what he had done, but the pain was overwhelming, so much so that my other leg wasn't even hurting anymore. I grabbed my broken leg as he crouched in front of me again.

"Tell Alice how much it hurts." He growled, then smelling the blood got more violent. "Tell her, how much it hurts, beg her, to save you!" He shouted, so loud that it echoed throughout the room.

He growled at me again, bearing his teeth, when something hit him from behind.


	19. Chapter 19

It was Alice. She punched him square in the face and sent him flying into the mirrors, glass shattering everywhere. He had dropped the camera, but that wasn't important to him anymore. He charged towards Alice and hit her so hard she hit the windows at the top of the room. His attention turned back to me. He grabbed my arm and dragged me across the glass-laden floor, tearing my clothes. He pulled my sleeve up on my arm, and bit me. His sharp teeth dug right into my skin, and I could feel my arm burning like it was on fire. I looked at him and he was bearing his teeth at me, my blood filling the gaps. Alice pounced on him and kicked his head then bit from his neck. She threw him against a broken mirror when suddenly Carlisle appeared and stopped her. She seemed to break from a trance, and looked back at me, then slowly walked over. My arm was still burning and my broken leg hurt like hell, but I tried to concentrate on Alice. She walked up to me and knelt beside me, stroking my head and not taking her eyes off the blood gushing from my leg. I screamed as the pain shot through my body like an electric shock, burning my head, my body, everything.

"Carlisle!" Alice shouted.

Within a second Carlisle was also by my side.

"Carlisle her arm."

He grabbed my arm and sighed. "This is your choice Alice."

"What?"

"Choose to let the poison spread through her body or stop it."

"You know I'll never be able to do that."

Carlisle tied something around the top of my thigh and pulled it tight. I guessed that was to slow the blood flow down, but Alice was still staring at it. My breathing was sharp, I felt almost suffocated by it at this point. I didn't really care what happened to me; I just wanted the pain to stop.

"I'm not having James turn her." Alice said, a hard edge to her words.

Alice grabbed my arm and put her lips to where James had bit me. She then closed her eyes, drew a breath and bit down hard. Her teeth were so sharp and I felt the pain all over again. Carlisle was watching her carefully, as was I. She looked like she was in as much pain as I was. She continued to drink my blood, drawing the poison out.

"Alice, her blood's clean now, stop."

She didn't stop. She carried on drinking my blood, which started to make me feel faint.

"Alice stop you're going to kill her."

A few seconds later Alice threw herself back but watching me intently, not moving a muscle. Her face changed completely and again she looked hurt. I looked back at Carlisle, who started to talk to me but I couldn't hear what he was saying; I was blacking out. I tried to look over at Alice but my vision went blurry, then I couldn't see anything.

My head hurt and I felt like I had been run over by a truck. I breathed out heavily, and tried opening my eyes which proved more difficult than what I had thought.

"Shhh."

It didn't sound like Alice, it sounded like mom! I opened my eyes fully to see my mom grinning down at me.

"Oh baby look at you."

She rubbed my forehead and kissed me on the head.

"H-hi mom." I struggled to speak, my throat was so dry.

My mom seemed to notice this and passed me a cup of water from besides the bed that I was lying on. It only then hit me that I was in hospital. I sat bolt upright and looked around, confused.

"Lie down honey you'll feel better."

I took a sip of water then lay back down. Mom took the cup off me and put it back on the table, then looked back at me.

"I don't think there's much point in me asking you how you're feeling, probably horrible." She smiled slightly. "You know, I never thought you'd be so clumsy as to fall down a flight of stairs!" She laughed at this then rubbed my head.

"I... What?" I asked.

"Oh honey don't you remember? You must have hit your head harder than we thought. You were at Alice's house, you went down stairs to get something to eat and you tripped, falling down a flight of stairs."

"Oh." I replied. The last thing I could remember was Alice staring at me with her eyes content on watching me, not that I was going to tell Mom that.

"You and Alice must have a really good relationship." Mom started, "She hasn't left you for one minute."

She nodded her head to behind her. Alice was sat there, her head hanging backwards off the seat.

"She's been asleep since I got here, must have been awake all night."

I nodded.

"Well I'll let you have some time to get round, I'll be back in a couple of hours because you still have some other visitors. I've been sat here watching you sleep for hours, keeping them all waiting." She smiled then kissed me on the forehead, and left.

As soon as Mom had left the room Alice almost jumped off her seat and was next to me, holding my hand. I looked into her eyes and my brows furrowed.

"It's because I drank your blood."

She answered my unasked question. She looked quite different with red eyes, a lot more threatening, but also sexier.

"That's why I've... been asleep." She laughed. "I don't think your mom would like me too much if she knew what I was."

I hummed in agreement then lay my head back on the pillow and closed my eyes.

"We've told Charlie the same story, although he doesn't seem overly happy that I let that happen to you."

"I'm sure he's not. You do realise he's probably not going to let me see you for a while as punishment." I laughed. "I need to tell him it's not your fault. I would have rather fell down the stairs to be honest, you would have caught me."

Alice laughed and as I opened my eyes saw she was smiling at me.

"I love you Bella."

She leant down and kissed me on the mouth. I could feel her cool breath and I started to feel better already.

"Isn't it harder for you?" I pushed Alice away; I suddenly had so many questions.

She shook her head. "I'm not thirsty. But you do realise that I haven't drank human blood in over sixty years." She raised an eyebrow at me.

"I'm sorry." I apologized. "Why did you... you know, not let me become one of you?"

"You're not ready."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that you have your whole life ahead of you and you're too young. Besides, I wasn't going to let James change you, no way. And also due to the fact that I don't know whether you want to become a vampire or not."

I nodded. It suddenly dawned on me what James had said to me about Alice.

"Did you see the tape?"

Alice's face went blank, and then she blinked and looked down. "I refused to watch it. However I do believe he knew something I would want to know."

"Did they not tell you?"

"No. They think that I need to watch it for myself, but I don't think I can."

"If you don't want to watch it I can always tell you some time?" I suggested. After all, if the roles were reversed there's no way I'd want to watch Alice get beaten up by James.

She smiled and looked at me. "Maybe when you're feeling better."

I hummed. I still had questions, tonnes of them, but tiredness was kicking in and I wasn't about to stop it, so I closed my eyes, and soon fell off to sleep.


	20. Chapter 20

It'd been three months since the incident with James, yet it had felt like well over a year. Alice had told me that Jasper and Emmett had been there, and that they had killed him. I didn't ask how. Alice seemed a lot happier now that I was well again. My leg had healed and so had all my other marks, apart from one; where James had bitten me. There was a bite mark, a scar. I thought nothing of it really, it wasn't that noticeable, not until my arm was in the sun at least. Like Alice's skin, it sparkled. At first I was in awe. I'd spend days shining it in the sun whilst Alice laughed at my amusement. I didn't have to hide it at school, because if anyone did ask about it I would just say it was glitter or something like glitter. Another thing that changed was Charlie. I thought he'd be angry at Alice, he always told me to be extra careful when I was with her, but maybe it was the whole girlfriend thing. However, he wasn't angry in the slightest. By the time I spoke to him in the hospital he had already spoken to Carlisle who was obviously going to back Alice up. When I had left the hospital and Alice's eyes had gone back to her usual shade of gold, she came round and spoke to Charlie. This seemed to make him a little more willing to let me spend time with her, which I did a lot. In this time I spoke to her about what James had said. She didn't seem too concerned now that he was dead but she could see his motives and said she should have seen it coming.

"It's not your fault Alice!" This was the hundredth time I had told her this, but she always blamed herself for what happened to me.

She looked over at me and leant towards me, kissing me softly on the lips. "You'd be the same if the roles were reversed."

Hmm, I probably would actually, although the thought was too much to even bare thinking about. I kissed her again then pulled away and watched her skin shimmer in the summer sun. We were sat in a field near the woods next to her house. We had been coming here quite often recently, spending alone time together. It was nice just being me and Alice. I did like her family and found that, due to the past few months, I had been getting on with them a lot better than before. I was quite surprised at this because I thought they would want rid of me, after all, I had caused them more trouble these past few months than what they'd all had in the past one hundred years. They didn't seem to mind and loved me being "part of the family" as Esme had put it, to Rosalie's obvious annoyance. Jasper had seemed a little better with me lately, and I think he's getting more used to the smell of my blood.

I caught Alice looking at me through the corner of my eye.

"You carry on in your deep thoughts." Alice smirked. "Just pretend I'm not here, I'll be fine."

She looked away and laughed. I pulled her close to me and lay back on the grass, lying down with her arms wrapped around me. It was nice her being cool, I could hug her as much as I wanted in the summer and I'd never get too hot. I looked over at her.

"You're still going to the Prom next week aren't you?" I asked, not sure on whether she'd bail out on me last minute.

"Bella I wouldn't miss it for the world." She reassured me.

"Bella!" I heard a scream coming from downstairs. I looked at myself once more in the mirror and opened the door, dashing down the stairs.

"Hey you don't want to be doing that too often!" Charlie said. "Especially not after last time."

I gave him a sarcastic smile and posed as best I could. Alice laughed at me and hugged me as I reached the bottom of the stairs.

"You two have a good time now!" Charlie said. "And don't worry about what time you get home tomorrow, I'm going fishing with Billy so I'll be out all day anyway."

Alice winked at me.

"Yeah okay dad, thanks for letting me stay at Alice's again."

"No problem." He said. "Do I get a hug before you leave for your prom night?"

I chuckled and gave Charlie a hug. It had been the first proper hug in quite a while, but I loved Charlie and was starting to really enjoy living with him. He pulled away and shoved the camera in my hand.

"I want lots of pictures alright? Remember we need some good ones to send to your Mom of you and all your friends."

I nodded and Alice told him not to worry, she'd make sure she got a couple of me. He waved us off as we got into Alice's Porsche and she drove off at top speed. I was starting to get nervous and I think Alice could tell. We pulled up in the parking lot and she told me not to worry, that everything would be alright. I stepped out of the car and saw Jacob. My mouth hung open; he was one of the people I wasn't expecting to see tonight.

"He wants to talk to you." Alice said, and then walked off to join her family.

I had no choice but to walk over to Jake. He smiled at me and when I had reached him greeted me with a hug. I'd been getting so many hugs lately.

"You look lovely." Jake said with a grin on his face, clearly thinking about me and not the clothes I was wearing.

"Thanks." I said and blushed.

"Billy wanted me to come here." He started. "He wants to warn you about your friends."

"Jake, I..."

"Bella let me finish. He told me to tell you to be careful. He knows what their type is capable of, and he just doesn't want to see you or Charlie hurt."

I sighed. I couldn't tell Jake what had really happened, he'd blow his top. I nodded in response and smiled up at him.

"Jake, have you gotten taller?" I laughed. It suddenly dawned on me how tall he was. God he'd grown.

Jake laughed too. "Yeah, I'm growing awfully fast these days, already grown out of three sizes this month."

"I can see." I said as I observed his towering frame. He was at least six feet tall, too tall for a sixteen year old.

"Hey Bella we good?" A serious look crossed his face and his eyebrows knitted together.

"Is that an apology?"

"Kinda. The best you'll get." He smiled.

"Well, as long as you can deal with, and get along with the fact I'm with Alice."

"Yeah. Sorry for being a jerk."

"He apologized!" I laughed and so did he. "Not being rude Jake but the Prom is going to start soon, I'm gonna shoot off."

"That's fine. Have a good time Bella, and be careful."

"I will Jake." I gave him one last hug before he went.

His warmth didn't go unnoticed. It felt nice, so different to Alice's cool body. Thinking of Alice and she appeared beside me.

"You ready to go in?" She asked, her eyes wide and eager.

"Sure am!" I said.

We walked into the main building and were greeted by almost all of the students. Jessica was there with Mike, and Angela had asked a boy to the Prom, one who I had not seen much of. I made a mental note to introduce myself to him, or vice versa. We continued walking through the room, all students eyes on us.

"You don't mind if we go outside for a dance do you? It's too hot in here." Alice shouted in my ear.

It's a good job she shouted because the music was so loud I wouldn't have heard her otherwise. We made our way outside and found a nicely lit spot to dance. I put my head on her shoulder and she did all the work. I can't dance, and I'd already told Alice this so it shouldn't have been a surprise.

We must have been there for at least an hour before Jessica came out and found us.

"We're having all the professional photo's done now, you coming to have them done?"

Alice didn't look too convinced but I dragged her along anyhow. We all had our pictures taken, professional and personal. I got plenty on my camera so that I could send some to Mom and I also kept the photographers details in case Mom wanted some of the professional ones too.

After lots of drink (non alcoholic may I add), we made our way back to our cars. Alice's was by far the best, and I felt like a celebrity being led to it. I said my goodbyes to Jessica and Mike, as well as Angela and her date, whose name was Eric, as well as all the other students who happened to be near when we left. Emmett Maria and Jasper also bid me goodbye. I was quite surprised as I was staying at their house tonight, but they said they'd see me tomorrow. It seemed like Alice had somehow got the house empty so that I could stay over. A broad smile crossed my lips as I got in Alice's car.

"Two guesses at what you're thinking about." She smirked.

I didn't answer her all the way to her house, and didn't even speak. Upon arriving, there were still some lights on.

"Have Carlisle and Esme stayed?"

"No." She said, "They've gone out too. I just like to keep a couple of lights on when we're out."

She walked me to the door and led me in the house. It was warm in the house. I didn't even realise they had heating.

"Do you want anything to eat or drink?" She asked.

I shook my head and she smirked again. She grabbed my hand and pulled me upstairs to her room. She opened the door and showed me the bed she had bought. It was huge, must have been at least a Queen size. She closed the door behind me and reluctantly lit a few candles by the window.

"I take it you don't like candles?" I asked.

"Just fire in general. It's the only thing that vampires are truly afraid of."

"Well then let me do it." I said, and lit the rest of them.

She stood behind me watching me. I turned round and blew the match out, placing it on the window sill.

Alice pulled me towards her and kissed me deeply. Her scent filled my nostrils and I could taste her on my lips. She picked me up and placed me on the bed, undressing me carefully. I did the same to her, and she crawled up the bed to meet me, placing her cool body onto mine. It sent shivers down my spine, but I loved every second of it. Not for one second did she stop. We made love so passionately; I never wanted it to end. I wasn't sure how Alice was feeling but I didn't stop to ask her in case she changed her mind. Hours later I could feel myself becoming exhausted. I fought it for as long as I could, but I was well and truly done. Alice could tell that I couldn't carry on and slowed down, finally stopping. She kissed me again and held me in her arms, placing a blanket over me. I couldn't help but feel on top of the world. I was so ready to make love to Alice, and it had happened. I was so proud of her for being able to do it; I knew it wasn't an easy thing for her to do. Feeling loved up, satisfied and content, I fell asleep in Alice's arms.

End of Twilight.


	21. Extra

Hey well Twilight has finished!

I thank all of you for reading this, and hope you've enjoyed it! I was thinking about writing New Moon as well, we'll have to see how much time I've got.

Thank you also for all of the reviews, some which helped me in writing the story and making it better.

I think that I could have fleshed it out a bit more, although it might have been too long on here. Like I said if I do get the time (and if people want me to of course) I will consider doing New Moon. I would have to change it a lot though!

I fancied doing a little ramble section, as I never put any notes on my chapters, as I think this looks messy and takes the reader away from the story for a brief minute or two.

I was mainly inspired by Twilight (obviously) but also Charlene Harris' True Blood novels. I have been reading those lately and think they are fantastic. The only problem is I can see so much of Twilight in them that it hurts to re-read twilight knowing that Stephanie Meyer MUST has got almost all of her inspiration from these books. Inspiration is fine, but read them for yourselves and you'll see. Not that I hate on Stephanie Meyer but I do feel a little short changed now finding this out.

If you do like Twilight and want more vampires, then you should read –

True blood (Sookie Stackhouse novels)

Vampire diaries.

Yes the two most publicised vampire series but truly the best.

I feel like recommending reading at the moment so here are some more novels you MUST read!

Harry Potter

No explanation needed for that one! I am truly OBSESSED.

The Redbreast – Jo Nesbo

A Norwegian writer. The first book in the series about Harry Hole, a police detective. Absolutely fantastic crime novels.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Novels based on (well, written before actually) the TV show Dexter.

Halo: Fall of reach

Bit of a nerdy one really but if you like Halo then a must read


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